Fire Safety is Important at a Blood Moon Ball
by Goshikku Hime wa Yami-san
Summary: What would have happened if Tom had grabbed Marco, and they became bonded under the blood moon at the Blood Moon Ball, instead of Marco and Star?
1. Chapter 1: Demons Have No Broughtupancy

"I told you to play this track!"

"Oh yes, sorry my Prince, I just thought this one would be better. The band, Screams of the Damned have really became popular again

"YOU WANT SCREAMS OF THE DAMNED? YOU'LL GET ENOUGH OF THEM WHEN I THROW YOU INTO THE RIVER STYX." Tom caught on fire, his eyes glowig as he glared and screamed at the idiotic DJ.

Lucky enough for the DJ, Brian seemed to notice what happened, and ran over to Tom, putting his hands on Tom shoulders and repeating phrases like, "Walk it off," and, "Count to ten," until Tom was both no longer engulfed by flames, and calm enough to hold onto a bunny without singeing it.

Tom nodded his thanks to Brian, and turned back to the DJ, taking in a deep breath and stroking the bunny furiously. He was not going to lose his cool. He had gone fifty-nine days without blowing up. Star was giving him a chance t'o at least talk to her, and show that he's changed. He changed the whole ball to be more Mewny inclusive. He was not going to mess this up.

"I do not care what is 'in'. I asked you to play a track at a certain time, and i expect that track to be played. Whatever you want to play after that track, I couldn't care less. I would expect such a simple task to be easy to follow, with no alterations. I am your Prince, am I not?" Tom said through gritted teeth, while furiously petting.

The DJ who had already felt faint when Tom had started screaming at him, quickly agreed to all that Tom said, and began spewing apologies. To be honest, the DJ, like the other demons, had laughed at the whole idea of a Anger Management guy. Anger Management, for a flame and anger demon? Ha! Why try to tame what makes you strong? However in that moment, the DJ was ready to give his immortal soul to that Brian guy, as he knew without Brian, the Prince would have probably made good on his threat. He's just a simple DJ. He ain't got plans of a doomed eternity yet. He quickly put in the requested song.

Tom took a deep breath once again, then passed the bunny back to Brian with a small smile, which Brian gave a thumbs up in return and a mouthed, "Good job".

Tom began to look for the Princess of Mewny, Star Butterfly, who he can't believe actually agreed to come here with him. To be totally honest, Tom was well aware that there was little to no chance she'd want to restart their relationship, and was almost at peace with it. He says almost, because he never really got a chance to talk to Star afterwards, as she kept declining his calls and deleting his messages, and thus he never really got his closure that there was nothing he could do. This was his last chance to see if anything romantic is possible between them. If the Blood Moon chose them to dance, then Tom would for sure know not to give up, because fate deems them to be together. If not, and the Blood Moon landed on a different couple, oh well. He'd have gotten the closure he needed, and Star had started communicating with him, so at least he could try to build back their friendship. Starship was a blast to have around as a friend, and Tom thinks he misses her company the most out of the entire break up.

His anger made a stunning return, though, when he saw Star dancing with some unknown demon, right before the Bloodmoon arrived. He had to be the one by Star, not some other demon! How was he supposed to know how to move forward if he wasn't right by her side when the moonlight hits!? He could feel his anger rising, but managed to keep back the flames as he strode over, and pulled the demon boy away from his date, spinning him around to see who dared to try and ruin his plans.

Unfortunately for Marco, he had just slid his mask up in order to show Star who he really was, which meant when Tom pulled and spun him, his totally human face was staring into the three-eyes of an angry fire prince.

Tom remembered that this was the human that was hanging around Star and chopped his hand off. He thinks Star called him Marco? Didn't the foolish mortal know that the Underworld was not the place for humans, especially on the night of the Bloodmoon Ball? Well, it was of no matter to Tom in that particular moment, as his anger just increased and he spat out, "You!"

It seemed like fate had quite the sense of humour however, because it was at this exact moment the blood moon appeared overhead, and it's light shone down on the two boys. Tom looked up at the sky, his anger fading to confusion, then looked back at Marco, and said in a distinctly different voice, "...You?"

Tom noticed they were getting some looks, and quickly pulled the boy's mask back on, before any demon could notice there was a human in their midst. Marco unknowing of both the danger, and what the bloodmoon meant, started rambling, "Look Tom, I'm sorry, I know you probably really like Star and whatnot, but I'm not positive you aren't trying to kidnap her or something, and as her best friend and temporary brother figure I don't want that to happen to her, and I didn't mean to ruin your ball, so if you'd please just let us go…? Wait, what's going on? What's with the moonlight?"

Tom just bit his lip, and ran a hand through his hair, careful of his horns, then said in a resigned voice, "Look Marco, right? I promise I'll explain this later, but for the love of hell and bunnies, dance with me right now."

Marco raised an eyebrow, "Wait, first your manhandling me, and now you want to dance? What? Is this a hell thing?"

Tom looks at Marco pleadingly, and says, "Please Marco," outstretching an arm to be either taken or rejected. Marco looks into Tom's eyes- all three of them- before shrugging and taking the demon's hand. In Marco's mind, Tom seemed to be innocent enough, if a least bit desperate, with this dance, and he did promise answers later. Plus Marco always did enjoy dancing, and as he was pulled away from Star early, he didn't get a chance to do much of it.

Tom was quite pleased to find out that Marco was a great dancer- well, for a human who didn't have his father breathing down his neck yelling at him for not learning to dance quick enough and screaming about how he's going to be a disappointment to the kingdom if he can't do this simple thing, and catching a maid on fire. What Tom means is, the mortal can dance.

Both boys found themselves actually having fun dancing together, all but forgetting about the moonlight spotlight that shined on them, and stares of demons and a flabbergasted, but happy Star. However all good things have to end, and the moonlight slowly shrunk. Right before it disappeared though, Tom, ever the romantic, tries to end the dance with a dip. He succeeds in dipping Marco, but unfortunately for them both, Marco's mask wasn't secured tightly and thus slipped off when the Mexican teen was dipped.

There was a moment of silence, in which Marco looked at Tom with a smile, panting slightly, aware his mask fell off, but not seeming to notice that anything was wrong. Then, excuse the saying, hell broke loose. Demons started shouting, "A human! It's a living human! We shall have a Bloodmoon Ball feast, our Prince brought us a rare treat! Human! Human! Human!"

The chanting grew louder and louder, and a few brave souls tried taking a swipe at Marco. Tom quickly set one on fire, while Marco karate chopped another, and Star was blasting herself over to them.

"Uh, Tom? What's going on?" Marco asked, dodging another grab.  
"I swear I'll explain later, just- Starship!" Tom broke off when he saw Star appear, "Take Marco and run. I can deal with these demon, they're my subjects after all, just get out of here now!"

Star, well aware of how the Underworld worked, nodded at Tom, and grabbed Marco's arm, both of them making a run for the exit elevator.

"But what about Tom? I know he's a demon, but we can't just leave him! He did try to help us." Marco called to Star.

"He'll be fine, just keep running, we're almost...there!" Star and Marco jumped in to the elevator, and Star told the flying gargoyle to go up back to the Earth floor, whilst Marco peeked out of the elevator. The last thing Marco saw, was Tom being engulfed in flames, his eyes glowing with a demonic light, yelling something in a strange language at the demons at the party, some of them cowering back, a few bowing in apology, and a decent amount ignoring Tom, and trying to get to the elevator. Marco didn't get to see what happened next.

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 **A/N: Broughtupancy (also spelled and pronounced Broughtupcy by some): the act of being raised properly. A person with no broughtupancy was not raised, they were lowered. Pronounced Brought-up-an-see or Brought-up-see.**


	2. Chapter 2: Marco Tells Himself Things

Marco sighs and flops onto his bed - his parents are on a spontaneous trip, and Star has gone for a "Gurlz Day" with Jackie, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Star had of course invited him to hang out, but ever since the Princess Pony Head thing, Marco felt that Star was really in need of some one-on-one girl time, whatever that entailed, and he didn't want to ruin that for Star - even if she said that he wouldn't ruin anything. That and he didn't quite know how to act around Jackie anymore- don't get him wrong, Marco's pretty sure he'd still make a fool out of himself in front of Jackie regardless of the situation, but ever since the ball three days ago his crush on her seemed to suddenly and swiftly decline.

Lately every time he drifts off and daydreams in the very few classes that lose his interest quickly (mainly spanish, because he can already speak and write it almost fluently), instead of getting lost in his thoughts about her cool skating tricks or her awesome hair, or his fantasies of actually having a conversation with her, he ends up with thoughts of elegant dancing, adorable bunnies, and a red-headed demon who looks like he doesn't seem to know the correct way to put on winged eyeliner. Instead of remembering the few times Jackie has talked to him, Marco can only seem to remember dancing at the ball, and a demon prince who didn't seem to be as bad as Marco thought he would be. Honestly, Tom could have probably forced Star to date him, maybe even threaten a war, yet he instead tried to change himself and his customs to be seem friendlier to Star, and Marco could respect that. Not to mention Tom looked cute with his bunnies.

At that thought Marco groaned and covered his face with a pillow. He tried to erase all thoughts of 'Tom' and 'cute' in the same sentence from his mind, and instead tried to conjure up how demonic and frightening Tom looked when he was scaring off the other demons at the Bloodmoon Ball. However, that plan backfired as even when he remembered how ferocious Tom appeared, his heart couldn't help but warm as he recalled Tom was only like that to protect him. He just hoped Tom was fine.

Marco shook his head - sure Tom saved him, and Marco owed him, but he didn't have to be worried, Tom was demon prince right? It makes no sense for Marco to feel worried, but he still did. He hadn't been able to get what happened out of his head no matter how hard he tried, and every time he thought of something bad happening to Tom, he felt a terrible pang deep in his chest.

'It must be a side effect to whatever happened at the ball. There's no other explanation.' Marco rationalized to himself, 'Maybe Star's book has something that'll explain all this craziness.'

With that thought in mind, Marco took the pillow from his face, and stood up, then headed for Star's room. He just prays he won't have to deal with Glossaryck, because Marco Diaz was not in the mood to go buy pudding and feed it to the weird genie. He entered the room, and closed the door behind him with his foot, before bending over to pull the big hulking book from under Star's bed. As he's about to start looking for information on the Bloodmoon Ball, Star's magic mirror suddenly begins to ring, causing Marco to jump into the air.

Now Marco knows he probably shouldn't touch Star's mirror after the whole pixie incident - even though true to her word, Star had changed carriers - it surely couldn't quite hurt to see who was calling Star right? It could be an important call from her parents after all! At least this is how Marco rationalized it to himself when he went over to pull open the curtains blocking the magic mirror, to see the caller ID.

The poor Spanish boy nearly tripped over his two feet in his haste to get away from the innocent looking mirror, that held a not so innocent, three lettered name of a demon caller. Marco, luckily enough, caught himself and forced his heart to calm down from the adrenaline rush almost falling had given him. At least, Marco's blaming it all on the adrenaline. He found himself torn on whether to pick up the call or not. On one hand, it would do him some peace of mind to see that the demon boy was whole, and he could possibly even get answers for his dilemma from the source. Unfortunately, on the other hand, to get answers Marco would have to tell Tom exactly what was bothering him, and risk getting made fun of by the demon teen. But, Marco did desperately want answers, and to be honest after he got said answers, there was nothing that said Marco had to ever speak to Tom again, so if the demon did tease him it at least wouldn't be for long.

As Marco's weighing the pros and cons in his head, and pacing in Star's room, he mutters aloud, "Maybe I should just answer it, and get this over with."

With Marco's luck, the mirror had picked up the word 'Answer' from the boy's mutterings, and had connected the call to certain prince of hell.

Tom hurries to get his words out, not even looking at who was in the room in the fear of Star hanging up on him before he had a chance to explain.

"Starshippleasedon'thangupIjustneedtotalkto…Marco?" Tom starts off in a hurry, but then trails off as he notices that it's not the rainbow-themed optimistic Princess of Mewny that he had expected to answer his call, but instead the pacing, flustered Spanish boy that he had called to ask for in the first place, who was on the other side of the mirror.

Marco once again jumps when he hears Tom say his name, and slowly turned around to face the demon. Marco's face flushes with embarrassment as he realizes that Tom probably saw at least some of his freaking out and pacing.

"Oh, um, hey there Tom," Marco tries to give a wave, that ended being honestly pathetic, and put his hand back down to continue, "Um, how are you and the whole hell thing? How's Brian? If you're looking for Star, she's out with a friend right now. Also I'd advise not trying to talk to her for awhile, she's still a bit agitated by the whole, 'demons trying to kill and eat me'...thing."

Tom just blinks, then asks with a resigned sigh, "Why are you even in Starship's room? You know what, nevermind. I actually called to speak with you. I said I'd explain the whole Bloodmoon Ball dance thing later, and…," He paused to run a hand through his hair, then flailed the same hand in the air a little - Marco absentmindedly noted that it was the same hand he had cut off - , "It's later. But, i rather not use up my minutes, and have to go visit the pixies. You still have the hell-bell right? Just ring it, and say you're going to floor negative six-hundred and sixty six, that's my level. We can, hopefully, talk there without getting interrupted, like we were at the ball."

Marco is immediately on guard at the idea of going anywhere alone with Tom. The dude was a literal demon - and not just a demon, but a flaming anger demon who's also the prince of hell! Marco wasn't even totally sure if Star even counted Tom as a friend, so Tom was a potential villain in his eyes. In fact, the only reason he hasn't just dropped the call is because he feels guilty about leaving Tom to protect him and Star from the demons at the ball. Or at least that's the reason Marco gave himself. Though honestly, the whole 'saving his life' thing, kinda negated the 'potential villain' persona Marco had been imagining in his head, but the other stuff, like the fact Tom was literally the angry demon fire prince of hell, still counted.

Marco raised a skeptical eyebrow at Tom's proposal, and asked "This isn't just some plot to get me alone in hell, so you can kill me right? Or kidnap me and hold me at ransom to get Star to date you? Because, demon," Marco spat out this word with as much venom as he could muster, "I am a green belt - with a stripe! - in karate, and i will cut your hand off again."

Marco raised his hands in what was supposed to be a fearsome karate pose. Supposed to be, being the key words. Any other situation and Tom might have laughed, however by this point in time Tom was about done with Marco expecting him to be some evil sadistic monster, and instead tries to prove that he's not. By catching on fire.

Tom all but shouts, "No, you stupid idiot! I try to do something helpful for once and!"

Tom cuts himself off, and struggles to get his flames and temper under control. When the flames are gone, Tom closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, before picking up a bunny from somewhere outside of what Marco's able to see through the glass. As Tom strokes the bunny furiously, Marco tries to tell himself that he does not feel guilty, and that he had every right to be worried.

Tom is eventually able to grit out through clenched teeth, eyes still tightly squeezed shut, "After hearing about how you tried to help Lobster Claws of all monsters turn good, I would think that you, out of all mortals, would be able to grasp and understand the concept that not every demon is a pure evil, sadistic monster. Yes, there are quite a few, but you shouldn't just assume. That kind of finger-pointing you do might get you killed one day. Or worse."

"Well, last time i was around demons, they did try to eat me," Marco tried to rationalize. "Wait… how did you hear about Lobster Claws?" Marco questions, actually feeling a bit guilty for his jump to - at the time logical - conclusions. He of all people should know not everything is always as it seems - especially when it came to the matters and people surrounding Star.

The question causes Tom to let out a small laugh, and open his - now back to normal, but filled with mirth - eyes.

"Aren't you supposed to be a smart mortal, or has Star just not told you anything? Well, she always did hate history lessons, I suppose… Monster's originate from Hell. Those minions have family down here, and all hellspawn have a penchant for bragging. Not to mention rumours spread fast as - well, hell - down here. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing about how that Lobster demon actually held Princess Star Butterfly's wand in his claws. Gasp." Tom rolls his eyes, as he absentmindedly stroked his bunny, at a much more sedate pace.

His sarcasm causes Marco to let out a snort of amusement, which causes Tom to give a small smile, proud of himself for putting the mor- Marco, at ease.

Tom then continued, "Anyways, we do actually need to talk. Just ring the bell, Marco. I swear on my father's kingdom, I'm not planning to steal your soul, or kidnap you, or any other foolishness that you might be thinking. I do however apologize for the whole 'my people trying to eat you' thing, I understand how that doesn't always leave the best impression. I'll hopefully see you soon."

With those final words, Tom hung up, leaving a slightly surprised Marco in his wake. Marco honestly wasn't expecting an apology for something that seemed to be out of Tom's control, especially as Tom did try to help them. The apology, however, ended up making Marco feel even guiltier for accusing Tom, who actually seemed to be trying to keep a lid on his temper. Not to mention, Tom hadn't actually done anything to warrant Marco's distrust, as Tom hasn't even tried to hurt Marco. The worse thing Tom has done to him was to roughly pull him away from Star at the ball, but that ended up with a sweet dance between them.

'I owe him this much for all the unwarranted hostility," Marco told himself as he went for the hell-bell in his room, then ran back and stood on Star's balcony, 'And I do need answers for the whole Bloodmoon Ball thing...'

Almost convincing himself with his thoughts, Marco rang the bell.

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 **A/N: It's 5:25am, i hope you all know how much i love you all. Reviews, faves, and follows make me smile and make me update quicker, and my tumblr's on my bio if anyone's interested~ ^u^**


	3. Chapter 3: Tom's Big Ass Room

**Sorry this took so long! Thanks for all the kind reviews and follows thus far~**

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Marco steps of the hellevator, confusingly remembering the gargoyle's stunned look, and astonished questioning of, "Are you sure you have the right floor? Like positive, fleshie?", that was repeatedly said to him on the way down.

'I wonder what that was all about.' Marco thinks, as he steps up to a giant red door that is intricately carved with depictions of flames, demons, and a strange type of almost runic letters and words, some that seemed to be glowing gold faintly.

He reaches for the door handles, but pulls back last minute as he realizes are actually black, curved, textured horns, which had presumably once belonged to some sort of demon- who most likely didn't give them up freely, seeing as there's dried red blood on the ends connected to the door. Marco reasons to himself, 'On second thought...it's probably rude to just enter without knocking, anyways.' and instead reaches for the intricate and detailed ring-shaped door-knocker, knocking on the door twice, before standing back and waiting nervously.

Soon enough, Tom opens the door with a surprised look and remarks, "Huh, I can't remember the last time someone's knocked instead of barging right in."

Marco starts to feel proud of his good manners, but then Tom continues, "You know, with the door knocker being a nose ring ripped from the nose of a half minotaur half giant in combat. People seem to find the fake horns more stomach-able, especially people not from hell."

Tom shrugs, "Oh well. Double points to you for being both brave and polite. Good job Marco."

All the blood drains from Marco's face as he says, "Wait...the horns are fake?"

Tom looks at Marco and laughs, "Starship really didn't tell you anything about demons, huh? I'm slightly offended. Did you really actually think demon's blood was red?"

Tom's laughter just increases as Marco looks down disgustedly at his hands, and then starts waving his hands frantically, trying to wipe his seemingly clean hands off on his jacket.

"Oh dude, gross! Where's your bathroom, do you **know** how many sicknesses can be spread through contact with blood and other bodily fluids? Not including how my body and immune system might react to your unknown demon germs! Stop laughing!" Marco exclaims, as he pushes past Tom to look for the bathroom.

However Marco's valiant quest for the bathroom was halted, as Marco heard a particular sound. He slowly turned around to face Tom, with a wide grin on his face.

"...Tom, did you just snort?"

Marco turned to see that Tom had covered his mouth and nose with his hands. All three of Tom's eyes were blown wide in surprise, before they shifted to a side as he said an unconfident and questioning, "No...?"

Marco's grin got even wider, "You so did, dude. And Star says I'm the dork."

Tom removes his hands from his face, which was turning blood red, with his cheeks actually physically steaming with a blush, "I don't know what you heard, mortal," he spits out the word like a curse, "but it definitely wasn't a so called snort."

Marco just let out a laugh and said, "Tom, your cheeks are literally steaming. Any chance of convincing me you aren't a huge snorting dork just went out your creepy giant door."

Tom sputtered a bit, his cheeks releasing even more steam as he hurried to explain, "No, you see, it's a fire demon thing, because my blood - or well, body - temperature is naturally boiling, when blood concentrates in one area- uh, well, steam is a thing- I, uh, can control everywhere but my head - ah the head is finicky because of the brain being there- um."

Tom was floundering a bit in his explanation, and his cheeks might as well have been on fire at this point. Marco couldn't help but let out a laugh at seeing the demon all worked up.

At hearing Marco's laugh, Tom cleared his throat and willed his blush away to the best of his ability. "Ahem. Anyways. Don't worry about any diseases, all things that could potentially harm me in the future have been fire cleansed. Also, we were here to discuss the ball, not strange laughing your mortal ears seem to hear."

"Yeah, thanks for reminding... me…" Marco trails off as he takes in Tom's room floor.

The room was enormous, with a vast, luxurious looking living room, and tons of doors and stairways leading off of it. The living room itself was black and white, with gold accents everywhere, and what seemed to be more rune writing on the walls. The other colours in the room came from the plethora of things in it, such as a fully sized trampoline in one corner, what might as well have been a movie theatre in another, multiple couches and colourful bean bag chairs sitting around a giant tv which had more games and gaming consoles surrounding it than Marco could name, and was that-

"Tom, why is there a gold plated hot tub in your living room?"

Tom looks confusedly at Marco for a second, before shaking his head and saying, "Oh that. It's just because the pool couldn't fit, so we had to move it to another room." Tom vaguely waves at some of the doors. "You can go through my stuff later if you really want to, but let's just go to the library first, alright?"

Tom starts climbing up a flight of floating stairs, and Marco starts to follow him.

Marco stops at the bottom step and calls out, "Tom, are you sure these are, well, safe?" He tries to nudge a step with the tip of his sneakers.

Tom looks down from his step, and raises an eyebrow, "I wouldn't be on it if it wasn't. C'mon Diaz."

Marco carefully places his weight on a step, and when it stayed still, he rushes to catch up with the demon prince. At the top of the stairway, Tom goes towards a door that had some of that strange runic language on it, then underneath it was the translation, "Library." Tom holds open the door for Marco to enter first, and once again Marco is slightly taken aback at how vast and extravagant the room is.

Tom's personal library was filled with tomes upon tomes of books, some looking to be more ancient than should be physically possible, some being newer books and magazines, mostly written in that strange runic language, but a few written in various earth languages. They were all set on bookshelves connected to marble pillars with said gold runic language seemingly engraved into the surface, and they stretched up farther than Marco could see. Marco's curiosity finally got the better of him.

"Hey Tom? What's with all the symbols everywhere?"

Tom hums as he browses a bookshelf, and he looks up, "Oh you mean our language? It's called hellish, that's what most of these books are written in. Well, some are in ancient hellish and some are in the more common spoken modern hellish. I even have a few written in future hellish. Hellish is the common tongue down here, though every type of demon have their own language and dialect. Hellish is just the language known by everyone down here, and thus is the most spoken and written, so that books can be understood and available to everyone, rather than a small niche that speak a different language. Though there are many books still written in demon-specific languages."

Marco hums, "Ah, that's really kind of cool. So what did the glowing hellish on your door say? Were they protection spells or something?"

To Marco's surprise Tom blushes - thankfully a small one this time so barely any steam escaped -, and rubs the back of his neck.

"Ah, well, most of them are, but the protection runes only glow when a threat is near or tries to enter my room or, should I say floor. The one's that were glowing..." Tom blushes a bit more and looks away, scratching the back of his head, "Those are just some stupid things I carved in when I was like twelve. Silly twelve year old things like, 'Stay out or die,' or, 'welcome to my twisted mind,' or, 'I will feast on your mother's dead corpse,' or even, 'Come at me scrublord I'm fucking ripped,' which I overheard someone saying, and thought it was the most badass thing. I swear I should have been slapped." Tom laughs a bit embarrassedly.

Marco couldn't help but laugh, even as his brain sang, 'One of these things is not like the others.'

Instead of voicing his thoughts however, Marco just says, "Yeesh. Don't worry Tom, we've all been there. Those cringeworthy years of twelve and thirteen."

Marco shudders as he remembers his own behavior at that age, and pats Tom reassuringly on the arm. However this causes a jolt of pleasant energy to run up his hand, causing him to remove it immediately. He looks at Tom and sees by the look in his three eyes, that he must of felt it too. Marco starts rubs the tingly feeling off his palm onto his jeans.

"So." Marco says in a slightly tight voice, "Bloodmoon Ball?"

Tom clears his throat and says, "Ah, yes, um."

He rubs his arm where Marco had touched looking a bit flustered, then took a particularly thick and ancient looking book off of a nearby bookshelf, titled: Demonic Customs and Traditions; Vol. 667. He then flips through the pages, and stops on the page titled, "Soul Bonds and Other Soul Related Nuisances." Tom nervously skims the page a bit needlessly, as he had already memorized the exact paragraph that has the needed information. He finds said paragraph, and reluctantly gives the book to Marco, pointing it out, not looking forward to the reaction he would most likely receive.

Marco reads the paragraph out loud, "The lucky two (or more) who are chosen and bathed under the Bloodmoon's light every six hundred and sixty seven years will be forever soul bonded in this life and the ones after it, as the Moon believes them to be made for each other, and more or less marks them as soulmates (see below paragraph for more information on soul mates). The Moon is never wrong, and it's decision can not be argued with, persuaded, or changed." As Marco continues to read, his voice suddenly becomes more and more incredulous, until he's basically shouting the last word. Tom cringes.

"You can not be serious! We're supposed to be soul mates?" Marco says shocked. He goes to throw the book, but realizes it could break something, so he carefully places it on the table, making sure he doesn't crease the pages.

"Don't get mad at me! It's not like I planned this." Tom defends himself.

"No, you planned for the moon to force Star's soul to bond with you! I knew you were up to no good, demon," Marco returns the favour early by spitting out that word as if it were a curse, "and now thanks to your little scheme, we're stuck like this!" Marco shouts.

Tom loses his temper and shouts, "DON'T SHOUT AT ME HUMAN," catching on fire. However, he then notices how Marco seemed to shrink on himself and had put up his hands up as if he thought Tom was going to attack him, and Tom forced himself to calm down, and leaves the room and returning with a bunny.

"I only took Starship to the ball to see if it was possible that we were soul mates. The book literally says you can't persuade the moon, and I certainly have no control over who it will bond, so your little theory of me trying to force Star into something is not even possible. That was actually my last chance to see if we were even compatible, and believe it or not, I was actually going to try and be friends with her if it didn't work out. But, you had to come in, ruin everything, and make me lose my temper in front of her in order to scare off the demons. Starship probably won't even look at me now, and I'm soul bonded to a guy who seems to think I'm the root of all evil. Just my luck." Tom looks down, and pets his bunny, "You can leave. I don't know why I expected anything different."

Marco rubs his arm and feels bad for once again jumping to conclusions.

"Look, Tom. I, uh, I actually wanted to apologize for all the accusations I've thrown at you, and, well, karate chopping your hand off. And what a perfect way to apologize that by throwing more accusations at you, huh? But you kind of are the prince of hell," Marco laughs nervously, "I see that this whole soul bond thing as a demon tradition means a lot to you and I can respect that. How about we just start over, and try to be friends? I mean soul bonds can always just be intense friendships right?"

Marco clears his throat, and sticks his hand out with a smile, "Hi there stranger, my name's Marco Diaz. I'm mexican, my favourite colour's red, and I go to a high school that used to be boring and predictable. Nice to meet you."

Tom looks down at the hand extended, then back at Marco. He smiles a bit in return, and puts down his bunny on the book, in order to shake Marco's hand.

"Hey there, I'm Tom. Uh, I'm the demon prince of hell- though there are other princes for each tier, I'm basically the overseer of them all. I'm home schooled by various tutors, and I have anger issues that I'm working on. It's nice to meet you too."

Marco shakes the hand and says, "Okay, now that we got that out of the way, is there anything I need to know about this bond? Like will we have to stay joined at the hip or something?"

Tom opens his mouth to speak, but then closes it when Marco continues, "Cuz that would suck wouldn't it? Having to be around each other twenty four/seven? I'm sure you must have better things to do. And I have school, and it would just be a huge inconvenience right? Especially as we can just talk through Star's mirror instead."

Marco doesn't notice how Tom's face falls at his words, or how Tom seems to internally struggle with something, before he replies, "Yeah, the mirror should work. Actually, let me just-"

Tom runs out of the library, and returns with a small red handheld mirror, that had two small horns coming from the top, and a handle that looked like a demon's tail. "Here, this should be easier to carry around, and now you don't have to use Starship's. You said you liked red, right?"

Marco takes the mirror from Tom, "Uh, yeah. Thanks a lot Tom, this is actually pretty cool. I feel like I should give you something in return now, but something as fancy as this probably costs more than I do," Marco laughs, then offers with a smile, carefully placing his mirror in his hoodie pocket as he speaks, "Instead, how about one day you stop by my house and I can make you some nachos? Star says they're really good."

Tom smiles softly and says, "You totally don't have to do that, but I do appreciate the offer, and will probably take you up on that. I guess you want to be going back to your dimension now?"

Marco nods, "Yeah, not to say your realm isn't cool - or well, hot -, but i should really get going."

Tom leads Marco out of the library, and asks, "You still have the hell-bell right? Keep that, in case you ever need to come down here for any reason. As my soul bonded, the runes will automatically let you in, so feel free to, like, hide from parents or responsibilities in here. It's what Starship used to do when we were good friends."

Tom waves his hand around in a 'mi casa es tu casa' motion, and accidentally knocks over a vase. "Oh shit." Tom mutters, and he bends to pick up the shattered vase pieces, when Marco reaches over and drags his hand back.

"Woah there, careful! You could cut yourself! Do you have a dustbin and a broom or something?" Marco says, looking around frantically as if expecting a broom and dustbin to materialize themselves out of midair.

Tom looks down at the hand Marco's still unconsciously holding, and smiles fondly. "Marco. You do realize I'm a demon, right?"

"Demon or not, glass splinters and cuts still hurt! And then blood will get everywhere as well, or what if you slip up and a glass shard cuts a vein?" Marco says looking into Tom's eyes earnestly.

Tom couldn't help but laugh. "Marco Diaz you are a strange human. But fine, you win." Tom gets up, and exaggeratedly steps clear over the broken vase. "Is this better?"

Marco steps over the mess on the floor and mutters, pouting a bit while crossing his arms, "We'll see who's laughing when you get hurt and have to get stitches." Marco continues onto the door with Tom before stopping and saying, "Wait, aren't you going to clean that up?"

Tom says with exasperated fondness, "It'll be fine."

Marco starts, "But what if-"

"It'll be fine Marco. And if it's not, you get to gloat all you want, alright?" Tom interrupts as the two reach the door.

"So yeah. Thanks for everything Tom, and sorry again. I'll, uh, try to call you sometime during this week?" Marco pulls out the hell-bell and rings it as he speaks.

A pained expression fleetingly passes over Tom's face, before he replies, "Ah. Yes. The call will totally suffice. I'll be looking forward to it then. Later Marco."

Marco gets on the hellevator once more, and waves at Tom, before the gargoyle shot up into his dimension once more.

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 **I am never mad to receive fanart~ *cough cough nudge nudge wink wonk* Reviews, follows, and favorites always brighten my day, and make me want to write faster!**


	4. Chapter 4: Good Marco, Such Wow

**A/N: Sorry again that this took so long! I got hit with a bout of 'my writing isn't as good as all these other tomco fic writer's works, why did i choose the BMB it's getting so overdone, i should just quit.' before getting pulled out of that by some lovely reviews! 3**  
 **i honestly don't know why you people read this, but ima not complaining, thank you very very much! Also, people have been promising fan art and ima very happi, here's not fan art but a fan edit someone did for this:** _(http)(:/)(/)(prntscr).com_ _(/87he11)_

 **subtracting the brackets of course! thanks lovely~**

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Marco said goodnight to Tom, and hung up the mirror, falling backwards onto his bed. A quick glance out of his window informed him that night had fallen whilst he and the demon prince were talking. To Marco's surprise, the past few weeks have gone by without a hitch, and dare Marco say it, normally. Well, as normal as life was nowadays for the poor Mexican boy. The only major difference in Marco's life is that when he comes home, after fighting whatever grunts Ludo had sent that day, he calls the - frankly exhausted looking - demon prince of the Underworld. No biggie.

Marco really didn't expect that he'd call Tom everyday, but he almost couldn't help himself. The demon was surprisingly understanding and easy to talk to, not to mention that Tom seemed actually pretty cool- when he doesn't fall asleep on the call that is. Even then Tom looks adorable (not that Marco would ever admit to it, just like he would never admit to taking a picture of Tom sleeping with a bunny on his head, as it is in no way his laptop's screensaver, not at all), and if it was, it'd only be for blackmail obviously.

Honestly, Tom has been a good friend to have, he didn't ask about Star, and let Marco rant about his day to him, although he did laugh whenever Marco brought up some reasonable objections to obvious safety hazards. He even helped Marco with his homework on occasion, as apparently the curriculum in the Underworld was ahead of what they had on Earth, who knew. Of course Marco still hung out with Star all the time, she was his best friend and befriending Tom wasn't going to change that, but the Mewni princess seemed to be hanging out with Jackie more frequently, so Marco didn't feel bad for not spending every second with her. The only thing Marco feels bad about is not being able to tell Star about the whole, 'soul-bonded to your ex' thing. It's not even that Marco thinks Star would be mad - a bit understandably cautious yes, but not mad -, but it's still an awkward topic to just bring up in casual conversation. What was he supposed to say? 'Hey Star pass the milk, oh and I'm soul-bonded to Tom. Isn't it nice weather out?' Like that would go over well.

Marco looked down at the mini mirror on his wrist, that more or less functions as a watch now, since he hung up. He recalls the first time he tried to make a call on the mirror, and how he freaked out when the tail wrapped around his arm. Tom had explained that it does that as a safety precaution, so that the owner can't drop it and so that they could use their hands whilst on a call, though he did tease Marco on how he should be glad as it's so safe. Tom then taught him how to remove the tail whilst still on call, and how to enlarge the mirror to the size of Star's own, which when in its enlarged state, floats. Shaking the memory from his head, Marco couldn't help but think it was kinda weird that Tom just sat, listened and helped him, rather than complaining about anything in his own life. Especially because being a prince would most likely give Tom a lot of ammo for rants, and he seemed like he would be such a complainer as it was so easy to tick him off- though he is getting better bit by bit.

Marco just sighs and gets ready for bed. Maybe Tom just didn't trust him yet. They had only been friends for about three weeks - though not to sound cliche, it does feel like more than that -, so Marco guesses he can't blame Tom. Nonetheless, he can't help but wonder why Tom looks so tired nowadays.

"Problems in hell maybe? Obviously Tom knows he can talk to me about anything, we are apparently bonded so its not like I'm going to backstab him," Marco mumbles to himself, not realizing he was even speaking out loud, "He'll just tell me when he's ready I guess. I just hope it's before the dude literally passes out from exhaustion in a dangerous situation."

Not bothering to scrutinize too hard on why he's suddenly so worried on Tom's health, Marco quickly falls asleep.

Marco wakes up very contently, blearily reaching over to turn off his alarm. For the past three weeks, Marco has been waking up more refreshed and happier than usual - a fact he blames on finally sorting everything out with Tom -, but this morning he feels even more content than usual. He shrugs it off, rubbing his eyes, and steps out of bed.

... And right onto someone's foot. Marco shrieks and jumps back onto the bed, before realizing it's Tom, who had been fast asleep at Marco's desk before being (rather rudely) awoken by someone stepping on his foot and screaming. Before Marco can even get a word out, Star bursts in through the door, still in her nightgown and holding her wand out, ready to fight back whatever caused Marco to scream. Marco's throat feels like it's tightening in panic, before he realizes Star still has on her sleeping mask, and can't see anything.

She waves her wand around, and yawns, "What happened," she interrupts herself with another yawn, "Marco? More monsters?"

Marco signals to Tom to keep quiet, before saying to Star, "Oh no, sorry. I just...eh, stubbed my toe is all."

Star yawns again, before falling from her defensive stance, "Oh. Silly, clumsy Marco." Star starts to sway on the spot a bit.

"Yeah, silly clumsy me. How bout you go back to your room, and take a shower? I'll let you use the shower first, as long as you promise not to fall asleep in it again." Marco says as he gently ushers the princess of Mewni from his room.

"That was one time Marco! One time." Star says as she leaves the room, still blind to the world around her.

Marco sighs in relief, and closes the door, leaning his back on it, before looking at Tom and whisper-screaming, "What are you even doing here?!"

Tom places his hands out in a placating gesture, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I swear I wasn't like, watching you sleep or anything creepy like that. I've just been doing my homework, see?" Tom gestures to a pile of papers, open notebooks, textbooks, pens and pencils, all which were scattered on Marco's desk.

Feeling slightly relieved that Tom didn't suddenly turn out to be some creepy stalker, Marco slowly makes his way from the door, back to his bed.

"Still doesn't explain what you're doing here dude."

Tom rubs the back of his neck a tad bit embarrassedly.

"Well, you see the bond actually won't let us be far away from each other for long stretches of time, well not without punishment - which can already be nearly unbearable for a demon, so I'm guessing it might be deadly for a human."

Tom clears his throat, "So, I decided I'd come here while you're sleeping and just, uh, stay in the room so the bond is sated, so you don't have to go through any vile punishment, or you know," Tom made a choking noise while miming cutting his throat.

"Uh, I figured this way you can easily go to school and wherever else you wanna go in the day without being worried about me having to following you, or anything. So," Tom shrugged a bit, then two of his eyes looked away from Marco to stare at the door in embarrassment, while the third one was still watching Marco as to gauge his reaction, "I've been doing this for the past three weeks. Um, not just schoolwork of course, not even my tutors could be that hellspawn-ish as to give me a mountain of work to everyday, even if they're from the Underworld. But, yeah, um, sometimes, I just bring my laptop and headphones and watch a movie, or read a book, or scroll the multi-net - uh, stuff like that. I'm usually out of here like a few minutes before you wake up, but I guess I passed out. Sorry." Tom scratches his cheek.

Marco nods slowly as all this new information processes.

"Alright, I can understand that. Plus, that does explain why you've been looking so tired lately," Marco completely misses the shocked look on Tom's face as he says that, "But why didn't you just tell me about the bond side effects? If nothing but to spare me the heart attack of waking up to a surprise demon in my room. We could've probably worked something better out."

Tom looks at Marco with all of his eyes and replies, "Well, I kinda just thought this was the best option. I wasn't going to like, force you to spend time with me, especially not in the Underworld where I have to stay for most of the days - I understand my home can be kinda off-putting for people not born or created there, or well, dead. And as I said, I doubt you'd want a demon stalker up here."

When Tom calls the Underworld his home, Marco's eyes widen as he realizes he's been unconsciously selfish. He thinks back to a time when he had first gone to prep school, and people either ignored, made fun of, or made light of his home life, traditions, and culture, just because it was foreign to them, and thus made them uncomfortable, and how he had always been trying to change himself, as if he was the one with the problem. He remembers befriending an Muslim girl who had her hijab ripped off, and was unable to do anything, because if she fought back, people would just feed that into the unfair stereotype that all Muslims were violent terrorists, and how unjust that was to her.

Marco facepalms and says to himself, "I've been such an idiot."

He removes his hand from his face, and looks at Tom who had been packing up all his schoolwork. "Look Tom, I've probably been going about this whole soul-bond thing in the wrong way. For that, I'm sorry, and gosh I really need to stop getting into situations where in the end I have to apologize to you, huh? Anyways, how bout instead of staying in my room while I sleep, getting sleep deprived, and looking like a creeper even though you're not, you go to school with me? You're currently homeschooled, right? You shouldn't have any problem catching up, especially seeing as you've actually helped me with most of my homework recently, you're probably even a bit ahead. I mean, they accepted a magical princess from a different dimension, why not the prince of the Underworld? Then on weekends, and maybe short holidays, I'd spend the days with you in the Underworld? I mean, since we're bonded and you are eventually going to be the king of that realm, I might as well get to know it. Plus, I won't lie, I am kinda curious on your customs and traditions. Star is the best, but she isn't really the person to ask for any book or history info. Some nights I could even sleep over if you want? And visa versa of course, as long as you don't have a problem. Long holidays however, are another ballgame that we'll have to see how to split. Here, let me just-," Marco brakes off his sentence, to stand up and reach behind Tom to get his calendar and a pencil from his desk, planning to use sharpie after he figured out how they were gonna split things.

"Sounds good to you though?" Marco asks Tom as he starts marking up his calendar.

Tom seems to be in an incredibly happy stupor, but he snaps out of it when Marco goes for his calendar. Tom asks confusedly, "Uh, yea, yes, that sounds perfect actually. But why would you do this for me? I get the Underworld isn't really the cosiest place, and I wouldn't hold a grudge against you or anything, for not wanting to spend time down there."

Marco replies, "Well, I can't just expect you to drop your future, home, family, nature, traditions, and cultures just because I don't understand it, or it makes me uncomfortable. Might as well see what the Underworld's all about, and adapt to it I guess. Find out what makes you tick, what not to do, what means what, maybe even find a way to ban you from my room when I get mad at you." Marco laughs a bit, "Added bonus being you don't look like you're going pass out every second. Plus I'm kinda interested in your written language, it seems really cool, and if I learned it, then I could write anything about anyone in this dimension, and they'd have no idea what it meant! Perfect for getting back at Jeremy Birnbaum anytime he does anything to me."

Marco looks up, "But this is a two way street buddy. I expect that you'll at least try to understand and adapt to my traditions and human culture in general, especially when you're up here."

Tom smiles widely, unconsciously flashing his fangs, "Of course I will."

As much as he adores Starship, Tom always had to water-down and change his demonic ways and traditions in order for her to feel comfortable, much to the chagrin and muttered complaints of his subjects. Not that he blames her in anyway - as he said, the Underworld isn't the cosiest dimension around -, but to have Marco so ready to learn about those traditions as they were, without any dilution, was a big, unexpected, and very pleasant surprise.

Marco smiles slightly, and looks up from where he was marking up his calendar, "I thought you would agree." Marco then looks at his alarm clock, and his eyes widens. "I don't want to kick you out or anything, but Star's probably out of the bathroom now, and if I don't start getting ready right this minute I'm going to be late for school."

Tom impulsively reaches over to grab Marco's head, and kisses his forehead. "I don't think I mind this soul-bond after all. See ya later, Marco Polo." Tom then falls through a suddenly created hell hole.

Marco didn't need a mirror to know that his face was red at the moment. He hesitantly puts his hand up to touch where Tom had kissed him, before realizing, 'Oh crap how am I going to explain this all to Star? Oh double crap, I'm going to be late!' Marco rushes towards the bathroom.

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 **A/N: okay i hope i didn't somehow offend anyone, and if i did spray me with water and hit me with a newspaper, and i apologize.**  
 **Reviews, follows, and faves are my life-blood at this point, and fan art makes me squeal like a 12 y/o, so any of that would be fantastic if you want! Thank you for liking my work thus far~**


	5. Chapter 5: Star Ain't Dumb

**Hihi guys! Sorry this took ever so long, and is ever so short, ib is a bitch -_-". Please forgive me ;A; And thank you all so very very much for all this continued support, faves, follows, and reviews on this shitty fic! ^o^ It means a lot~!**

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Marco walks into school beside the happily skipping Star who is calling out greetings left and right. It was kinda weird being best friends with the most popular and happy-go-lucky girl in school - the most popular girl, not including the girl who paid people to like her, that is.

As they near the lockers, Marco physically moving Star around and under potential dangers, and ducking under her exuberant hand gestures until they got there, he realizes that he has to talk to the principal about getting Tom in. Theoretically Star would most likely be the only person that could help, as he has no clue how Star's parents persuaded the principal into letting the princess stay at the school in the first place (If Marco had to guess, he would think it had something to do with the chest of gold the principal had in his hand when he was introducing Marco to Star. And he sincerely hopes that isn't the case, because there was no way he could get that kind of money). Not to mention that Star above everyone else has the right to be the first to know about the soul-bond between him and Tom - excluding the people actually involved in the bond of course. When Star stops by her locker, however, Marco believes he finally found a way to tell her easily and straightforwardly, with no complications or beating around the bush, all the while being very empathetic, comforting, and understanding.

"So Star, um. You're named after astrology right? You know what else is in the night sky, other than stars? Moons. Sometimes really weird ones like, full moons, new moons, blue moons, crescent moons, and i don't know, blood moons. It's kinda fun to look at as they change right? Dancing is also fun right? Dancing reminds me of this saying we have on Earth, "dancing with the devil", have you ever heard it before? That reminds me, what do you think of demons, they're not all bad right? I mean if someone you're close to was to get say, hypothetically of course, bond to one because of a dance under a weird moon, that wouldn't be a problem or the worst thing in the world right?"

"Hmm, yeah totally totally totally. No biggie." Star mutters as she looks out the window to stare at someone, most likely Oskar by the way her cheek-hearts turned a bright red and seemed to pulsate.

"Star are you even listening to me?" Marco asks, leaning back on his locker.

"That depends, are you at the part yet when you tell me you're soul-bonded to Tom, or nah?" Star says, absentmindedly gnawing on her wand as she continues to stare out the window.

Marco nearly slides down the locker, as he flails his arms in shock, sputtering out, "Wait- what- how- Star, I can expl- what."

Star tears her eyes from whomever she was watching to look at Marco, then takes the wand out of her mouth to throw it up into the air and catch it, while she rolls her eyes, "C'mooooon Marco, I'm not stupid!" She misses a catch and the wand lands on her head. "Ouch ouch oooouch." she rubs her head, "Ignore that."

"I never thought you were stupid, Star, I just didn't know you knew about the Blood Moon, or else you would've probably never went, is all." Marco explains as he brings Star's head closer to his to examine the bruise. He ensures that it's nothing serious, and lets her go after putting a constellation-themed band-aid on the small bruise- he's taken to carrying them around in his backpack after he befriended Star.

"Oh yeah, I had no clue!" Star says while smoothing back her bangs to try her best to see the band-aid on her forehead, "I think there may have been a lesson in that, but my foreign politics and customs teacher was soooo boring, and I got tired from all the sneaking out to fight monsters and partying I did, that I kinda just…" Star takes her hands out of her hair and mimics falling asleep with a snore. "But Glossaryck was a lot of help."

"Gah, I hate that dude. How come he just answers your questions with no demands to be fed chocolate pudding? It's not fair! Sexism I tell you!" Marco crosses his arms and pouts a bit.

"Oh Marco Marco Marco." Star stands in front of him and starts rubbing his cheeks, "Glossaryck was made to answer princesses, not just random people! No matter how good you looked in that princess dress Marco, without identifying as a girl and having a country to run, you ain't a princess."

Marco tries his best to stick out his tongue at Star between his squished lips, before removing his face from her hands. "So, you really don't mind the whole, me soul-bonded to your demon prince ex thing?"

"Nah Marco, it's all good." Star puckers her lips, bobs her head and mimes smoothing out the air. "I can't even be too mad that you didn't tell me, because I haven't told you that I may possibly be kinda sorta maybe dating Jackie Lynn Thomas?" Star focuses on her twiddling fingers as she says this.

"Wait what!?" Marco exclaims flinging his arms, "Jackie Lynn Thomas? THE Jackie Lynn Thomas? When did this become a thing? How did this become a thing? What even happened? Why was I not told?"

Star covers Marco's mouth with her hands, "Sh sh sh, you can't be mad, because I wasn't mad about Tom, so ha! Gotcha!" Star nervously giggles. "It's kinda ironic that you're dating my ex, and I'm dating your past crush, isn't it Marco?"

Marco, once again, gently removes Star's hands from his face, and lets out a short chuckle, "Yeah, I guess so. We really do need to just… have a sleepover in each other's room, or something? Apparently there's a lot to catch up on either side. Wait, me and Tom dating?"

Star fistbumps Marco and ignores his last splutter of a question, "Hell yeah, sleepover! Mess-up twins, together for life!" Star smiles brightly and starts to walk towards Jackie who had skated in, before stopping to turn around and say, "By the way Marco, if you wanna keep a conversation secret, you might wanna plug in earphones into your mirror! Or at least turn down the volume!" She then sticks her tongue out at Marco, as Marco sinks down the lockers onto the ground with an embarrassed groan.

"You can do that?" He mutters aloud under his breath, before remembering what he needed Star's help for in the first place.

"Oh wait, Star!" Marco calls out and waves the slightly annoyed princess back over.

"Marco, Marco, Marco, light of my life, my twin, the metaphorical ying to my yang, I love you, but I was about to get my mack on." Star pouts as she approaches Marco.

"I know, I know, and I'm sorry, but how did your parents convince the principal to let you into the school?" Marco pleads, "It's kinda really important info."

Star narrowed her eyes and her cheek marks turns from hearts, to question marks, to lit-up light bulbs as she realizes.

"Does this have anything to do with Tooooom?" She sing-songed the demon's name, and when Marco just blushes slightly and lookes away with a shrug, she sighs and says, "Okay I'll tell you, but I want the deets on everything that's going on. I need in Marco!"

She grabs Marco by the front of his hoodie, and shook him, "This screams mischief, and I AM mischief Marco, you can't keep me in the dark!"

Marco just laughs at Star's shaking, and removed himself from her grabby hands, "Alright, alright, I'll tell you everything."

At Star's expectant look, Marco continues, "Later. Seriously though, did they cast a spell, and forge some sort of deal?" Marco straightens out his crumpled hoodie.

Star just shrugs and said, "Nah, they just gave him a big ole' chest of gold. Easy-peasy!" She smiles brightly.

In reply, Marco snarks, "I'm sorry, I think I left my chest of literal gold and jewels in my other pants."

Star laughs at Marco's snark, "Marco Marco Maaaaarcoooo. You do realize you're soul-bonded to a literal prince right? Just tell Tom that all it takes is a chest of gold, and badda-bing badda-boom, he's in!" Star fires finger-guns at Marco, "As I said, easy-peasy!"

"That….actually makes perfect sense. Thanks a ton Star." Marco says appreciatively, smiling at her.

"No problem, not even a tiny problem." She easily waves him off. "Now if you don't mind Marco, I'mma go get my mack on with my girlfriend. But, we will have the sleepover tonight, and trust me when I say I won't forget!"

She crushes Marco with a hug and blinds him with a smile, before skipping over to her girlfriend.

Marco just shakes his head with a smile, and wonders how he got so lucky to have such a great friend.

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 **Again, faves, reviews, and follows are basically my life-blood for this fic and help me to motivate myself to write faster~ And let me just make this clear, you don't even have to ask me to make fanart, just inform me of its existence/possibility, and link meh when you post it! Fan art would make me the literal happiest, it'd prolly be my phone wallpaper for awhile tbh.**


	6. Chapter 6:Almost-Not-Quite-Boy-Friend

**oh wow look, i'm actually alive. i swear i'm more shocked then any of you, and it's like 4am so excuse my not tiredness. Seriously though, I'm sorry this took so fucking long, all of y'all are amazing, ib is literal death, plus I've been kinda writing my own original book/story/thing, which is fun but also stress so *distressed noises*. Thanks so much for putting up with my shitty writing and even shittier time management, and i hope you enjoy! ^u^**

 **BTW: I ACTUALLY GOT FUCKING FAN ART I AM SO EXCITED GAZE UPON ITS MAGNIFICENCE: post/131072684376/my-brain-you-know-they-only-appear-in-one**

 ***happi velociraptor noises* i've also started tracking the tag: fsiiaabmb on tumblr if you have anything related to the fic that you want me to see! ^u^**

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The Friday evening found Marco and Star in Star's room, underneath a magically created, massive blanket fort, in their respective pajamas, with a giant plate of nachos being shared between them.

"So, since then you've been talking with Tom regularly, and you wanna get to know him better, and so you're trying to sneak him in all Star-like into school?" Star says as she nabs some nachos,stuffing them in her mouth with her free, already painted hand.

"Pretty much. And you and Jackie started hanging out - hold still Star, I don't want to mess up when I'm almost done - cuz you two escaped monsters at this party you went to that I didn't feel like going to?" Marco reiterates as he finishes painting Star's other hand's nails a light blue-sparkled pastel pink. She had somehow talked Marco into painting her nails with her super fast drying nail polish, but he didn't mind, as he had really missed hanging out with his best friend - not to mention it helps him practise the steady hand and patience he needs for karate.

Marco let go of Star's hand, and she held it up in the air, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the sparkles, before saying, "Yup! Then we kept hanging out, cuz I thought skateboarding was one of the coolest magics on Earth, like seriously Marco, the board just moves on it's own! She tried to teach me, then stuff happened, then I spilled my drink on her, yadda yadda more stuff, then I told her I thought she was like, super cute and- wait, Marco! Lemme do your nails!" Star interrupts herself, then rushes out of the fort, and bringing back some red nail polish, all the while ignoring Marco's sputterings.

"You just told her, upfront, that you thought she was cute?" Marco eventually spat out as Star took his hands."Wait, what colour is that? Because I don't think I wanna get beat up just for the sake of being 'nail twins' with you Star."

"Oh shush Marco, if anyone even thought of bullying you, you could just y'know, karate chop them in the head, and I could give 'em a good old fashioned Narwhal Blast." Star mimed chopping the air, "And anyways, it's red. Y'know, your favourite colour, and the colour that reminds you of Tom~." Star drew out Tom's name in a teasing manner as she started painting his nails.

"Hey- what- it does not!" Marco tried to rebut, "Red has always been my favourite colour!"

Star totally ignores him, instead continuing with her story, "But yeah, it was easy 'cuz everyone knows and agrees that Jackie is a super cutie. Okay, maybe it wasn't that easy. Maybe, just maybe, there was some stuttering and freezing, and just a tad intense blushing and a pinch of freaking out when she agreed to be my girlfriend and go on a date, and I might have felt like I was going through Mewberty again, but details details, really Marco." Star waves the air like she was blowing away any questions as she finished with one of Marco's hands.

Marco let out a small laugh, and passed his other hand to Star, "Good to know that no one's immune to the force that is Jackie Lynn Thomas."

"Okay enough about me! Tell me more about your boyfriend!" Star finishes up Marco's nail, and then lets go of Marco's hands, leaning forward conspiratorially.

"B-boyfriend?! Tom is not my boyfriend Star!"

"Boyfriend, soul-bonded, same thing, tell me!"

"No, not same thing Star!" Marco stands up and starts pacing around the blanket fort, "I mean, I don't know much about soul-bonds, but can't we just stay like really close friends? Is there some rule that says we can't? I have no idea what I'm doing Star."

Star stands up, and stop's Marco's pacing with gentle hands on his shoulders, pushing him down to sit. "Hey hey hey now, calm down Marco. I'm just saying there hasn't been any recorded cases of a soul bond ending in just close friendship, but that doesn't mean it can't happen! ... Would it really be that much of a disaster if you ended up dating Tom though? I thought, from what you've told me, that you don't think he's that bad or evil anymore."

Marco sighs, and carefully runs his hands over his face before saying, "No. Yes. I don't know Star. I've just befriended the dude, I don't want to scare him off by developing a crush or anything. I mean, the fact that he can't actually be scared off because of the bond is equal parts relieving and scary, but I don't want to ruin any friendship that might be budding. I mean, I don't even think he's into guys, he's been hung-up on you for so long." Marco lets out another sigh, "But, if I did develop a crush on him that was somehow, using some magic, reciprocated, and we ended up dating, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Let's not jinx it though, alright? Best buddies is all I am working towards, so I don't need a matchmaker. I'm talking to you Star."

Star laughs, "No promises Marco! And I wouldn't be so sure of Tom's 'straightness', but that's for him to explain. Wait a minute, don't you have to tell your parents about Tom staying with you during the weekday? And tell Tom about the whole, you know, chest of gold thing?"

Marco groans, and falls backwards onto some pillows, "My parents! I totally forgot, how am I gonna tell them about all this?"

Star pats Marco's cheek and says, "Don't worry, Star's got this."

She then stands up and goes to the door, shouting down, "Mr and Mrs Diaz, my friend who is also Marco's boyfriend is going to be staying with us for awhile, is that cool with you?!"

A shouted response came from Marco's dad saying, "Any friend of yours is a friend of ours!" The kind voice Marco's mom filtered up, "Plus, we have to meet Marco's boyfriend, or else what kind of parents would we be?"

"Well, there you go Marco, easy-peasy!"

Marco quickly stood up and ran to the door, shoving a laughing Star onto some pillows, and shouting down, "He's not my boyfriend!"

He then turns back towards Star and says, "Really Star? You had to say that?"

Star still laughing, sits up and says, "Hey, you're the one that forgot to tell them! I was just preparing for the future, I mean, don't you always tell me to 'plan ahead'?"

Marco groaned and face planted back into the pillows. Star continued to laugh as she picked up Marco's still groaning head, and placed it in her lap, "Come on Marco, it'll be fine! Now you don't have to explain the whole soul-bond jazz, cause they'll think you two are always together because of some gushy-mushy love stuff! And if you two do end up getting together, you won't have to tell them, and if you don't then this can just be a prank or something."

She plays with Marco's hair and asks in a more subdued manner, "You're not actually mad, are you?"

Marco stops groaning and replies, "No, not really. It'll just be another thing to explain to Tom, I guess. But, why do I have the feeling that this is payback for not telling you sooner? I mean, you only just told me about you and Jackie!"

"Cuz Marco!" She lightly slaps his cheek, "Me and Jackie just became an official thing! So I did tell you as soon as it happened, technically." Star then pinches her fingers together, closes one of her eyes and squints the other as she says, "And yes, just an itsy bitsy tiny bit of payback. I mean, I am your twin Marco!" She lightly hits his shoulder, "Best besties and twins don't keep stuff like this from each other!"

Marco snorts, then rolls on his back to face Star, still in her lap, "Okay, no more keeping secrets. Is that fair?

Star smiles and nods, "Pinky swear on it Marco. Pinky! Swear!"

She holds her pinky in his face, and Marco bats it away, before wrapping his pinky around hers, the pink and red nail polish complimenting each other, "Yeah, yeah, pinky-swear."

After they let go of each other's pinkies, Marco asked, "Alright, we've done nachos, blanket fort, nail polish, caught up and I even let you try and put makeup on me. That's two for me, two for you, and one for the both of us. What next? We have one more each and then should probably try to go to bed."

Star chewed her wand thoughtfully, and then suddenly said with a gasp, her heart-cheeks turning into lightbulbs briefly, "You still have to call Tom and tell him about everything! That'll count as yours, and then we can start a movie marathon of movies I chose for my own!"

"Uh, Star I don't think that's really fair-" Marco starts, but is then cut off.

"Oh come on Marco, let's stop debating things like 'fairness' and call your almost-not-quite-boyfriend-friend!"

"He's not my-!" Marco was cut off as Star suddenly stood up, causing his head to fall out of her lap and hit the ground with a slight thump. Star didn't seem to notice as she manhandled Marco's wrist to face her, accidentally pining Marco in the process, and saying clearly into the watch on the wrist, "Mirror Mirror, call Tom."

The mirror-watch rang for a bit, the watch enlarging and floating off of Marco's wrist. Eventually, Tom picked up saying without actually looking at the mirror for a bit, seemingly writing something with one of his bunnies on his head, "Hey Marco-polo, is everything okay, you haven't called me and it's really late in Earth terms rig-," Tom looks up finally, and almost does a double-take, "Starship?"

"Hey there Tom, cute bunny! we need to catch up sometime since there's no more hard feelings about the whole break-up-then-blood-moon-ball-thing! But! Marco needs to tell you something first, come on Marco tell him, tell him, tell him!"

All three of Tom's eyes blinked slowly and a slow smile spread across his face, "Now I'm positive you haven't changed a bit Starship. Also, yeah, water under the bridge, we did worse things when we were together- though usually not to each other, like that one time with that annoying pixie."

Two of Tom's eyes looks off into the distance, his third one staying on the mirror, as well as Star looking off into the distance herself, as if they both were remembering something. They say at the simultaneously, "Good times."

"Anyways." Tom shakes his head, and return the two wandering eyes back to the mirror, "Marco-polo. What did you want to tell me?"

Marco had been watching the entire interaction between Tom and Star with exasperated fondness, and a bit of… jealously? Marco shakes himself out of it and says, "Well, I'd get to it if Star would get off of me before my lungs collapse."

Star rolls of Marco, saying "Oops, sorry Marco."

Tom mockingly shakes a finger at Star with a smirk, and says, "Now Starship, don't you know that humans are fragile?"

Marco sits up, criss-crosses his legs, and straightens out his shirt, "Hahaha Tom, pick on the human. Seriously though, we figured out everything over this side. My parents are totally cool with you crashing here during the week - they might have some… strange assumptions, because someone," Marco throws a mock glare at the laughing Star, "Likes to make my life difficult. Other than that, if you can bring like a chest of gold or something like that to school, we can bribe the principal to let you in, just like Star's parents did. Is everything cool over your side?"

Tom rubs the back of his neck, "Well, the whole 'you staying in the Underworld sometimes' thing is still going through… tweaks. I mean, it'll probably happen, 'cuz my mom thinks it's fine and she has a lot of power when it comes to dad, but my dad still needs to be, uh... convinced. However, my mom says it's totally cool if I went to school with you on Earth, and fed my dad something about 'dimensional connections', so that part's set. Just maybe call me on Monday morning reminding me to bring the chest of gold, and then I'll just open a hell hole into your room, yeah?"

Marco scratches his cheek and a soft smile appears on his face, "Yeah, that sounds… that sounds cool."

A soft smile appeared on Tom's face in a reaction to Marco's, and Tom repeats, "Cool."

The two remain softly smiling and looking at each other for a moment, until Star, who had been quietly watching the interaction while shoving nachos into her mouth as if it were popcorn, interrupted with a firm, "Ahem."

The two boys startled and looked away as Star continued, "Sorry to cut this short, but me and Marco have a movie marathon to force ourselves through until sleep takes us-" Marco let out a groan, and Star, not looking at him, reached over to cover his mouth, touching his cheek at first, before correcting her aim with a, "Shhhh Marco Marco Marco. You agreed and there is no escaping."

Directing her full attention back to Tom, she says, "Also, it seems like your bunny fell asleep on your head Tom, so you probably need to put them to bed and continue writing whatever you were writing. Good night, and see ya on Monday! Oh, and tell Brian 'hi' for me!" Star waved at the mirror with a big smile.

"Uh, yeah, you're probably right. Night Marco-polo, Starship, have fun with your movie marathon." Tom said, two eyes focused on them while the third was trying to look on top of his head as he was carefully trying to take off the bunny without waking it, his forked purple tongue slightly sticking out in concentration.

Marco removed Star's hand from his mouth and gave a slight wave, " I guess we'll talk again tomorrow or Monday. Night Tom. And bunny."

After he said his good night, Star reached over to the mirror, and ended the call, the mirror shrinking back down to watch-size, and reattaching itself to Marco's wrist.

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 **i apologise for the shortness, but forgive me as it is literally 4am and i dont know up from down let alone plot and grammar. Follows + faves show that you care, and review give me motivation! i'm never mad at fanart *nudge nudge wink wonk cough cough hack***


	7. Chapter 7: Tom's a Dirty Hoodie Thief

**A/N: i am so sorry this took so long, depression has been being a huge bitch :c. I had planned to get this up way before now, i even made a post under the fsiiaabmb tag on tumblr saying i would, but i just didn't have the drive to finish writing the chapter? Well, it's here now, and i apologise! Thank you all so much for your continued support 3 ilyasm**

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Before long, it's Monday morning, and Marco finds himself fiddling with his clothes in the mirror.

"Wait, why am I even worried? It's just Tom." Marco says to himself, before nodding at his reflection, and dialing Tom on his mirror-watch.

Tom picks up nearly immediately, "Hey Marco-polo, is it time?"

"Morning Tom. And, uh, yeah, but don't forget the, y'know, literal chest of gold." Marco said, with an unbelieving tone at the end of his sentence.

Tom laughs, "I still can't believe you're so shocked by that-,"

Marco cut him off, "I still can't believe you're not."

Tom continued as if he wasn't interrupted, "But I remembered. Let me just put it in my bag, and I'll be there before you can name the levels of the Underworld."

"The levels of-?" Marco started confusedly, but Tom had hung up on him.

Marco shook his head, and started to turn back towards the mirror to play with his hair, when a hellhole suddenly appeared in his room, with Tom popping out of it.

Marco jumps and clutches his heart, "Holy hell Tom, I didn't think you meant you'd be here immediately."

Tom snorts as he pulls himself into Marco's room, in his casual outfit of shorts, studded belt, his red shirt with torn sleeves, and his knee-high boots, "Holy hell? Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron Marco-Polo?" Tom looks up after he closes the hellhole, and remarks, "You look nice. Less sleepy and frumpy than you do when you usually call me."

Marco slightly pouted, saying, "Well, I do call you at night before I go to sleep, but thanks I guess? You look..." Marco turned back to Tom, and looked over his outfit, "...more like a street punk than a prince, but it suits you in a way."

Tom smiles and mock bows, "Why thank you. We both know you wished you looked this cool, Marco-Polo, but don't worry, we can work on that."

Tom ignores Marco's sputterings, and gives him a wide smirk, before walking to his door, "Don't you have to introduce your - what was it, boyfriend? - to your parents Marco-Polo?"

Marco stopped sputtering, and red took over his cheeks as he stomps towards the door, "I take it back every nice thing I've said to you, you are horrible, you're a horrible horrible demon."

Tom burst out laughing at that statement, before quickly sobering up and following after Marco as the brunet storms past him, and shouts "Hey, wait, Marco-Polo I was just joking!"

Marco ignores Tom as he stomps over to Star's room, causing Tom to hang onto the back of Marco's hoodie and continually whine, "Maaaaarco-Pooooolooooo."

Marco continues to ignore the demon, and knocks on Star's door. Star opens it, looking as if she's suppressing giggles.

Marco points at Tom and says, "I don't want him anymore, take him from me please, I will pay you."

Both Star and Tom burst out laughing at that, though Tom tries to pout, and says through laughs, "That's really mean Marco-Polo, treating your boyfriend like that."

"I will pay you double, Star." Is all Marco replies with.

Star eventually gets her laughs under control and says, "Nuh-uh, been there, done that- no offense Tom!"

Tom replies, "None taken Starship," and waves for her to continue.

Star starts back up, "It was your idea, and I am loving this." Star laughs again, but then gasps, "I'm going to have to get pictures for Ponyhead, she'll never believe this! I'll be right down for breakfast, let me just find my camera!"

Marco starts, "No - camera - Star!" Unfortunately for him, Star has shut the door in his face, without paying any mind to his complaints.

Marco sighs and none-too-gently thumps his head on the door, as Tom laughs. However, quickly enough the laughter stops, and Marco is turned around by Tom, "I'm sorry, I forgot how easily riled up you are, and how fun it was to tease you. I'll cut it out if it really bothers you."

Marco sighs and rubs his forehead, "It's fine, I know you don't really mean any harm. Plus, I rather be teased then set on fire so." Marco shrugged his shoulders, and drops his hand from his head.

Tom closes his third eye, before gently bumping the light bruise on Marco's forehead, with his forehead, "You humans bruise so easily. You have to be more careful Marco-Polo."

Marco relaxes at their closeness, before freezing, then blushing and quickly moving back against the doorframe, "Yeah, um, we should, breakfast, and my parents."

All three of Tom's eyes widen, and he steps away, rubbing the back of his neck, "Yeah, sorry about," Tom clears his throat, before continuing "The soul bond demands closeness as well as the want for the people involved to keep the other safe and happy, and since you were hurt, it hit me harder since I'm a demon, and therefore naturally possessive. Sorry." Tom clears his throat, and looks away again. "I can, uh, heal that, you know."

Marco coughs into his hand, and refuses to meet Tom's gaze, "Yeah, no, I understand, it's fine, I was just surprised." Marco glances over at Tom, and then away again, "You can heal?"

"Well, I may not have magic like Starship, but demons have advanced healing, and you're my bonded so it would work even faster on you than anyone else." Tom explains, still not looking Marco in the eyes.

"Oh, makes sense. Well, I guess you can try? If you want." Marco shrugged.

Tom clears his throat, before stepping back up to Marco, and taking his face in his hands once more. He seemed to think better though, and steps back, then bites his thumb until it bleeds, and rubs a streak of blood on Marco's bruise, where the purple blood slowly heats up, bubbles, and dissolves, seeming to take the bruise with it slowly.

Tom tries to offer an explanation, "Sorry, the healing properties are imbedded in me, so it has to be some sort of bodily fluid, which is why it doesn't always work on people, especially mortals, as they usually can't take the temperature. However as I said, you're my bonded, and I honestly couldn't hurt you if I tried or even accidentally. And sorry it takes awhile, saliva would be quicker, but I doubted you'd want me licking your forehead like a creep."

Tom's cheeks turn dark purple as steam rises, and he looks away once more.

"Uh, thanks." Marco replies as his bruise disappears, lightly rubbing his hand over his now healed forehead.

They ended up standing up there in awkward silence, refusing to meet each other's eyes, and this was the scene that Star walks into when she comes from her room with her pastel pink polaroid around her neck.

Star simply looks between the two boys for awhile, before rolling her eyes and mutters under her breath, "Boys," before speaking out, "Thanks for waiting for me - even though it toooootally wasn't necessary - let's go eat!"

She takes Marco and Tom by their arms, and proceeds to drag them downstairs.

"Morning Mrs and Mr Diaz, this is Tom, Tom say hi!" Star yells out as she rushes down the stairs with the boys.

"Uh, hi Mr and Mrs… Diaz…?" Tom trails off as he gets downstairs, and notices that the two parents had a cake in their hands, and were standing under a banner that said, 'Welcome to Earth Tom!'

"Good morning Tom!" both of the Diaz parents say together before Marco's mom says, "We're so glad to have you here! Oh, you're even more handsome than I thought - good job Marco!"

To this Marco started spluttering, while his dad went on, "Eh, Tom, I hope you like Earth, cuz since you're dating m'ijo you're going to be seeing a lot of it!" and started laughing heartily, "Here, have a slice of cake."

He gives a slice to Tom, then to Star who was happily jumping up and down, then to Marco who rolled his eyes when his father nudged him.

"I'm sorry about this Tom, I forgot to warn you, my parents love doing things like this." Marco whispered over to Tom, any awkwardness between them destroyed by his parents' exuberance.

"No it's…" Marco looked over as Tom trailed off, and saw Tom looking back and forth between his cake, the decorations, and Marco's parents in awe, "It's fantastic. I wasn't expecting such a… warm greeting, I guess. Or cake. You're parents seem really nice Marco." Tom says, his third eye looking over at Marco, while the other two focus on the cake he's eating.

"Mrs. and Mr. Diaz, this cake is wonderful." Tom says after he takes his first bite, all three eyes focusing back on Marco's parents.

"Why thank you Tom!" Marco's dad says, while his mother says, "It was our pleasure," as she ropes her husband into cleaning up with her.

Marco stares at Tom as he scarfs down the cake, slowly eating his own. He wasn't sure what he was expecting when Tom met his parents, but it sure wasn't this. Though, it definitely wasn't a bad thing. Marco's eyes travelled to his parents, 'At least they like him,' he thought as he finished up his cake, and put down the plate.

"Thanks Mom, Dad. We should go catch the bus now, though, see you later!" Marco waved, before picking up his bag and heading to the door, Star following with cake all over her mouth and her spiky purple backpack quickly slung on her back.

Tom, seeing them leaving, quickly finishes the cake and calls out a quick, "Thank you again!" to Marco's parents before following them both.

As the trio got to the bus stop, Marco realises something, "Tom, don't you have a backpack, or servant to carry your books, or something?"

Tom looks at Marco surprised, apparently lost in thought, then says, "I knew I forgot something."

He snaps his fingers, and a hellhole suddenly appears under his feet and he drops in. Marco jumps away from the quickly closing hellhole, before starting to freak out.

"Tom!?" He looks at Star who's nomming on her wand, completely calm.

"Chill out Marco~! He probably just went back to the Underworld to get his stuff, s'all cool. He'll be back before you know!" Star smiles, and pats his back, since he still looks panicked.

Marco looks over at Star, who still has icing all over her mouth, and laughs before wiping her mouth on his sweater sleeve. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"I'm always right Marco!" Star says, her voice muffled from Marco's sweater sleeve.

As she says that, another hellhole appears beside them, and Marco yelps and jumps away once more, pulling Star with him, as Tom crawls out with a what looked like flames with gold shoulder straps - which seemed to have both pastel, cute bunny pins and some sort of demon rock band pins on it - on his back.

"Tom you're bag is on fire!" Marco screams, as he quickly lets go of Star, and makes his way over to Tom, trying to rip the open flame from his back. "Stop, drop and roll!"

Tom takes a hold of Marco's hands, and gently pulls them away, "Calm down there mister fire safety. This is the normal state of my bag - it's the newest edition 'Screams of the Souls of the Damned' backpack, from the 'Suffering Souls of the Underworld' line. Not to mention I'm basically fireproof."

"Oh." Marco takes back his hands, a bit embarrassed as Star chuckles in the background, fully enjoying seeing her best bestie freak out.

Seeing his embarrassment, Tom quickly amends, "Though if I wasn't, and this was real fire, you probably would've saved my life, so thanks."

Marco smiled and says, "Well, it's always best to always be alert! Wait, 'Screams of the Souls of the Damned'? I get the whole, 'Souls of the Damned' part, but where does the 'Screams' come in?"

Star quickly magics up some earmuffs for herself when Tom says, "Well you see," and presses a button on the bag. The horrible, bone-chilling, blood-curdling sound of a million tortured souls rang out from the backpack. Marco immediately winces and his eyes start to tear up for no reason. He tries to covers his ears, though Star magics him up a pair of earmuff soon after, while Tom's eyes close with bliss. "I feel a bit homesick now, heh."

Tom says, then opens his eyes, and sees both Star and Marco tear-filled faces, and that they had their ears covered - not to mention that there were a few dead birds at his feet that seemingly fell from the sky. Tom quickly shuts the screams off, "Oops. Kinda forgot it wasn't meant for mortals, sorry."

He rubs the back of his neck and looks apologetically at both Marco and Star.

Star and Marco take off their earmuffs, Marco saying, "Alright, just some, you know, warning would be nice? Oh, and please never do that again."

"Well to be fair Marco," Star says as she wipes her eyes, "You did kinda ask for it. But I agree with the whole 'never do that again' thing."

"You know you could've warned me too Star." Marco says, and is rewarded by a tongue stuck out in his direction by the Mewnie Princess.

"Yeah, but that wouldn't have been as much fun! Oh look, the bus!"

The bus pulled up beside them, and Marco just sighs, deciding to let it go. "Let's just get to school."

They all pile onto the bus. Tom gets some stares because of his horns, but Star quickly takes the spotlight, as per usual, and Marco sits by the window, Tom beside him. Before long, they arrive at school, and they all pile out of the bus.

Star spots Jackie, and turns and gives Marco a pleading look.

"Go on, and say hi for me. We'll see you in class."

Star's eyes got as wide as her smile, and she hugged both Marco and Tom, "Thank you thank you thank you! See you later Tom, don't set anyone on fire!"

With those final words of advice, Star makes her way over to Jackie, waving her hand and shouting, "Jackie Jackie, guess what- oh and Marco says hi!"

Shaking his head at Star's antics, Marco turns back to Tom,"Okay, let's just head straight for the principal's office, and then go to class before we miss much- Tom, are you alright?"

Tom, who had been looking around the halls, and meeting students curious gazes head on, seemed to be shivering and he wrapped his arms around himself, "I just… didn't expect it to be so cold, Marco-Polo. Last time I was here, I was in a full suit, after all."

Marco turned to him confused, "Cold? It's the start of summer!"

"Well Marco-Polo, I am from the firey pits of the Underworld. Let's just say the climate is a bit warmer there." Tom blows on his hands, still shivering a bit, "I can handle it though, it's just a bit of cold after all."

Marco slaps his palm to his forehead, "That's right, the Underworld- constant flames and all that. I should have realised the sudden climate change would've been a shock to your system!"

Marco starts unzipping his hoodie, revealing the plain white shirt he had underneath - he was never wearing the 'I Kissed A Ninja' shirt to school ever again -, before handing the red hoodie to Tom, "No complaining, I don't want you getting sick, and having your parents come after me with fire and brimestone for allowing it."

"I don't think you have to worry about the 'fire and brimestone'," Tom says as he takes the hoodie and puts it on, zipping it up immediately, and looking much better than a few seconds ago, "But thanks a lot Marco-Polo." He shoves his hands in the pockets, and gives Marco a smile.

Marco blushes, and looks away with a cough, before returning the smile, "Uh, no problem, I have more at home. As long as I eventually get it back it's fine."

As he said this, Tom let out a laugh. Marco quickly fixed Tom with a suspicious glare, "I am getting it back, right Tom?"

"So, we have to see this principal of yours right?"

"Tom! You dirty hoodie thief!"

"C'mon, I don't have anything long sleeved in my entire wardrobe, except for the suit, and you said yourself you didn't want me getting sick, so just lead the way to your principal Marco-Polo!"

Marco grumbled a bit, continuing to call Tom a 'dirty hoodie thief' under his breath, but started to head towards the main office, already making plans to get Tom his own hoodie, just so he can get his back.

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 **Reviews, follows, and faves makes the world of fan fiction go round! xD**


	8. Chapter 8: Royal Talk & a 3-Headed Bunny

**A/N: I AM SO SO SORRY, IB IS KILLING ME, I LITERALLY HAVE A PROJECT WORTH 100 MARKS, WHILE DOING A LAB IN THE SAME SUBJECT, AND HAVE TO BE PLANNING MY EE (4000 word essay) AND MY IA'S (2000 word essays for every class) WHILE DOING HOMEWORK, AND IM STRESSED AND CRYING MOST OF THE TIME, BUT THAT DOESN'T FORGIVE ME FOR NOT UPDATING SOONER, AND I AM SO SORRY YOU ALL ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST 3 it is very much 4:30am so forgive me for any spelling/grammar errors, and if you see one point it out and i'll try to fix it when i'm not sleep deprived! ^O^**

 **Also! Lookit this cute AF fan art i got through tumblr of the hallway hoodie thief scene!:** cinna-not-a-bun . tumblr. ccom/ post/134636275441/ tom-you-dirty-hoodie-thief-fire-safety-is (minus the spaces and fix the double c in com!)

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They were in and out of the office surprisingly quickly. Of course, the principal put up a fuss first, especially with Tom being a demon, but once he saw the gold Tom had stored in his backpack it was smooth sailing, especially as since Marco was already with Tom, the principal didn't have to worry on getting someone to lead him around the school, and they headed to their first class.

As Marco thought, Tom got a lot of attention, especially from the more alternative kids, but instead of talking or flirting, he was fully invested in the lesson, taking notes, and sometimes even making a point to lean over to Marco to talk about how wrong the syllabus was on certain things, or to just get clarification on human actions, such as raising hands when you know the answer, instead of throwing fire, acid, or poison at the teacher and/or fellow students. Marco did curiously note that Tom seemed a bit focused on his bag though, Tom had it in his lap, and was frequently opening it as if he was looking for something in there, but as Tom wasn't giving any trouble by doing so, and didn't seem worried, Marco just put it off as Tom making sure his bag didn't set something on fire- he still didn't buy the whole 'fake fire' thing.

Soon enough the lunch bell rang, and Marco began to lead Tom to the cafeteria.

"I still can't believe you throw fire at teachers."

"Non-lethal amounts, Marco-Polo, most of us are at least a little fire proof, as well as immune to most poisons - the more powerful you are, the harder it is to kill you, and so most of the teachers have to be a certain power level to deal with us. Especially kindergarten teachers, do not mess with them, trust me. I mean, we aren't brain-dead neanderthals, Marco, we're violent, but only as violent as we can get away with."

"But still!" Marco throws his hands up in the air, and Tom snorts, before ruffling his hair, "Don't worry your little human mind about it Marco-Polo."

Marco rolls his eyes, but smiles, finding himself to enjoy Tom's company more than he had thought he ever would. "Well, you're about to meet my other two friends, Ferguson and Alfonso- please don't scare them off, they're pretty cool."

"Then everything will balance out well." Tom says offhandedly, mostly to himself.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Marco questions, turning his head towards Tom.

"Oh, it's just good that they're cool, as it will balance everything out. Y'know, cuz I'm hot as hell."

For a second Marco didn't say anything, then he let out a massive groan, shoving a laughing Tom away from him, "You are the worst."

"Actually studies have shown that I'm the best, but hey," Tom raises his hands in surrender as Marco continues to glare at him, "Different people, different opinions."

Marco rolls his eyes at Tom, "Just don't set one of them on fire if they, I don't know, say something you don't like? I rather not see my friends burn to death thank you very much, and I will not hesitate to drop kick you, then run and get Star to freeze you in a block of ice or something."

Tom stuffs his hands into his stolen hoodie and says casually, "Noted."

They quickly reach the cafeteria, and get their lunch, before going over to Marco's usual table, already filled with his friends. Marco, who had been making light conversation with Tom as they walked, stops in his tracks when he sees that in edition to his friends, Star had seemingly invited Jackie Lynn over to their table as well.

While Marco didn't quite have a crush on her anymore, what with her dating Star and all, it was still incredibly threatening to see such a popular girl sitting with them, and he wonders idly if he should just sit somewhere else with Tom, instead of making a fool of himself.

Tom looks over at Marco curiously, before turning to see what he was looking at. Tom's eyes narrowed slightly in a glare as he spotted Jackie, his eyes going back and forth between Jackie and Marco, before rolling his eyes and lightly tugging on Marco's sleeve, "C'mon Marco-Polo, I don't feel like eating while standing up. Those are your friends aren't they? I mean Star's over there already."

'It's not my place to get jealous,' Tom repeats to himself as they sit at the table, 'Though I wish the bond was strong enough to get a good read on Marco's feelings.' He then pokes his food, until Star flicks his horn.

"Rude." Tom says while rubbing his horn, though he smiles at Star as he speaks.

"Well soooorry, but you were totally ignoring me and my awesome introductions!"

"Oh. Sorry Starship, my mind was gone, just getting used to Earth I guess. Mind repeating what you said?"

Star pretends to think about the request, "Hmm, I don't know, my introductions were pretty awesome the first time around." She breaks out into a smile, "I will, but you have to get me the new Death Killers cd! Oh, and the Princess Sparkles single!"

Tom snorts, "You drive a hard bargain, but sure. Plus, you and I both know I was going to get that for you anyways. I always get you new albums for the bands you like, whether we're friends or not."

"Yeah, but now you have a reason to, and I don't feel as bad accepting them, especially as we're friends again and it doesn't feel like a guilt trip! Anyways," Star continues, "That's Ferguson, and that's Alfonso - they were Marco's friends before I was - ,the person spying on us behind the garbage is Janna - she's pretty cool, most of the time - ,you already know me and Marco, uh, the girl glaring at us way over there is Brittney -"

Star stops to wave at Brittney with a huge smile on her face, to which Brittney just responds with an even meaner glare. Star's hand slowly lowers, and her smile slightly falls, which causes Tom to look over at Brittney and give her his most terrifying glare - glowing red eyes, forked tongue, and all.

Brittney turns pale, and quickly turns her back on the table, and Tom hears a voice saying, "Damn, nice one. I haven't seen queenie that scared since a spider fell on her head in prep school."

Tom turns around to see that the comment came from the girl Marco was staring at earlier. Star says, continuing her introductions, "And this, dear Tom, is the coolest kid in school, Jackie Lynn Thomas," then she whispered loudly enough for the table to hear, "My girlfriend!"

Jackie Lynn blushes slightly and says, "I wouldn't say I'm the coolest kid, but," she raises her hand for a high-five, "dude, you have all of my respect. That glare was awesome, you gotta teach me how to do that sometime."

Tom's eyes glance quickly between Star, Marco, and Jackie, before smiling slightly, revealing his fangs, and giving Jackie a high-five, "Oh, you and I are going to get along perfectly. Did Star ever tell you about the time she tried to fight a siren, before she learned how to swim?"

"Toooom, no shoosh, you two are no longer allowed to be friends." Star calls out hurriedly, covering his mouth with her hands.

"I don't know Star, I kinda wanna hear the story." Jackie says, leaning her elbows on the table with a smirk.

"Marco help!" Star looks to Marco pleadingly.

"You brought this on yourself." Marco says as he continues to eat his pizza.

Jackie's eyes light up, and she looks at Tom, "Oh, that reminds me! Did Marco ever tell you about that one time in kindergarten when he-"

She's cut off by a red-faced Marco slamming his hands on the table, "Nope, you're not allowed to be friends, not at all."

At this, the entire table - minus Marco and Star - burst out laughing.

Tom then says, "Oh how could I forget," and reaches into his backpack that he had put carefully on his lap when he sat down, and takes out a white, fuzzy, three-headed creature. Marco and Alfonso slowly lean away from Tom, while the girls and Ferguson lean closer to try and see what it was.

"Uh, Tom. I'm not freaking out, but what is that, and why on earth did you take it to school." Marco hisses at Tom.

"Hmm?" Tom says, reluctantly removing his attention from the fuzzy creature, "Oh, this is Cerberus, my three headed bunny. When I went home for my bag, Brian said I should take her with me, just in case."

Tom turns Cerberus towards Marco so that he could get a better look, "I just call her Cerbi for short."

Marco slowly inches back over near to Tom, and carefully places his hand by the rabbit, which then snuggled into Marco's fingers. "Okay, I guess she's kinda cute."

"Tom, dude, that's so sick! I kinda want one now." Jackie says, stretching out of her seat to look at Cerbi.

"Sorry Jackie, but Cerbi is one of a kind," Tom says with a smug grin, petting the bunny.

Seeing her crestfallen face, Tom's own smile slips slightly, and he continues, "But, if you want, you and Starship can feed her? If Starship remembers how, that is."

Star squeals, "Of course I remember how Tom! Oh gosh, she's gotten so big though- still as cute as button though!"

Star then carefully scoops up Cerbi, and scoots over beside Jackie, before using her wand to magick up some bunny food that seemed to be from the Underworld- or at least what Marco assumes to be Underworld bunny food, seeing as a lot of the food items that looked too odd, and well, bloody for a rabbit to eat usually.

Star starts rambling to Jackie, "So this head eats veggies mostly, this head eats raw meat mostly- it could settle for rare, but Tom likes spoiling her -, and the middle head eats anything, but prefers sweets!"

"Hey Tom, you're like a prince of hell or something right?" Ferguson asks out of the blue.

"Uh, well yeah, technically I suppose. Something like that anyways." Tom replies, all three eyes blinking at the question.

"Then why would you have a freaking bunny as a pet? If I was the prince of hell, I'd have like, a giant flame spewing dragon, that like, shot venom from it's eyes. Not some tiny rabbit." Ferguson says, slightly poking the rabbit's tail.

Tom's left eye twitches, "Well, human, bunnies are fantastic company, they're always sweet, while dragons can be temperamental. Not to mention the whole dragon movement that states that dragons are their own sentient species, and thus shouldn't be treated as pets, which I fully agree as a close friend of mine is dragonborn, but you wouldn't know that would you, you ishmalti ghator nu spanf. Don't stulal talk about things you know nothing about, it makes you sound ignorant and like a doroby, though honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that was somewhere in your gene pool."

Tom reaches over, which causes a pale Ferguson to flinch, but Tom only picks up Cerbi and starts to pet her furiously, all the while continuing to feed her, ignoring Star's slack jaw.

"Woah Tom, I only knew around three of those words, and I can tell you you are lucky they're no teachers who speak hellish around here. Where did you even learn some of those, and why haven't you taught me yet?"

Tom cracks a smile at this, and looks at Marco when he says, "No, no teaching Star swears in other languages," Marco ignores Star's prompt whining and continues, "Okay, I didn't understand any of that, but two things. One, even I could tell you weren't saying anything nice, don't you think you were a bit too harsh on Ferg? I mean, none of us, save Star, know any better, with us being from Earth and all."

Tom pouts slightly, and looks back down at Cerbi. He starts patting her more slowly and concedes, "Yeah, okay. I apologise Ferguson, Marco's right I came off too harsh with you. Anger issues and all that, but that's no excuse, and I am trying to get better. On the bright side, I didn't set you on fire."

Tom looks up with a proud smile as he says this, and Ferguson pales further.

"No you didn't, I suppose that in itself is progress," Marco sighs and runs a tired hand over his face before squeezing Tom's shoulder, saying with a supportive smile, "Good job Tom."

Star adds on, "Yeah! You're already much better than when we had first met! You deserve a reward!"

Star waves her wand, and a star sticker appears on Tom's shirt, with the saying "You tried," in comic sans, and a circle button right under it, stating, "Congratulate me, I haven't set anyone on fire today."

Tom looks happily down at his sticker and button, and Ferguson clears his throat, colour slowly returning to his face, "It's, uh, cool Tom. I really didn't know what I was talking about, and I didn't mean to like, offend you or anything. Sorry."

Tom just waves off his apology with a smile, "We're equally wrong, let's just forget about it."

Marco speaks up, "Okay, the second thing I wanted to say, or well ask. Can you teach me hellish? I mean, I'm obviously gonna spend more time in the Underworld, might as well learn the language, instead of looking like some ignorant human. Gotta build up my dimension cred, what with both you and Star being royals and all."

"Uh, if you really want to learn, I suppose. But it's not necessary, pretty much everyone there can understand if not speak english already."

Marco waved him off, "That doesn't matter to me. I wanna be able to speak your language, so I can no if you're actually insulting me without me knowing, and we can talk about Star behind her back."

"Hey!" Star exclaims and punches Marco's shoulder.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding, jeeze, you know I'm only joking."

"Yeah Starship, Marco-Polo's too much of a cinnamon roll to talk shit."

Ignoring Marco's disgruntled, "Hey!", Star giggles and says, "Yea yea, that's true. Face it Marco, you're a pure, innocent cinnamon roll, too precious for this world!"

"Precious my ass," Marco grumbles, before returning his attention back to Tom, "I hope you know that I am not putting up with all this teasing unless you're gonna teach me hellish."

Tom puts his hand on his chin as he mulls over Marco's request, all three eyes unfocused in thought, while his second hand pets Cerbi. Enough time passes that Marco starts figiding in his seat, before Tom says softly, all eyes snapping to Marco, "Well I guess I could try and teach you, if you really want to learn that badly. May be fun to speak to someone in this dimension in my mother tongue. But, it's not gonna be easy, I'm not even sure myself how a human will be able to pronounce some of the words we use."

Marco once again waves him off, "I didn't ask for easy, I asked to be taught a new language. I mean, I'm already bilingual, I know how tough language learning can be, but I think I can do it with a good enough teacher. I mean, I'll have to settle for you, but it's still possible."

"Hey, what's that supposed to-" Tom starts, but Marco ignores him, focusing on Star, "I can't believe it's easier for me to get Tom to teach me his language than my supposed best friend."

Star comes around the table in order to grab Marco by the shoulders and starts to shake him, "Marco Marco Marco! How many times do I have to tell you this, Mewnish is all but a dead language. Dead as in deceased, finished, unused and unthought of, ten feet under, other synonyms and metaphors for death, yadda yadda yadda. Everyone's kinda just mostly adopted English, with a few slang hybrid words here and there," Star stops shaking Marco, and instead grabs his face, pressing his cheek to her cheek while gesturing off in the distance, "That's one of the differences between Mewnie and the Underworld Marco!"

She turns her head with a big smile so they are now forehead-to-forehead, "Mewnie's all about adapting to the future," She lets go of Marco's head, and made a dismissive gesture towards Tom, "And the Underworld's all about tradition and holding on to the past."

Tom snorts at this, giving Cerbi back over to Jackie to hold, and comments, "Say's the girl whose country still has peasants instead of middle and lower class workers with proper housing, still fights monsters with rudimentary weapons, still relies on magick for some of the most simple day-to-day activities, and who still lives in an unnecessarily gaudy looking castle."

Star gasps, "Hey your place is gaudy too!"

"Yes, but only from the inside Starship. There's no need to flaunt our wealth from the outside, that's why it only looks like a penthouse suite rather than a mansion my dear. You see Marco-Polo," Tom says, pulling Marco over towards him, "While Mewnie still thrives on old money passed down through generations, the Underworld is a mostly new money economy, and far more advanced than others," He sends a fake glare towards Star who fake glares right back and sticks her tongue out, "Would have you believe. While yes, we do have a few outliers who still have power only from what was given to them through generations of greatness -"

Star cuts him off, "Snooty, privileged, pretentious royals like you."

Tom chuckles at this input and smiles at Star, "You're royalty too you know sweetheart, and I'll have you know the main royal branch always prides ourselves by gaining more power each generation instead of falling back on old ones. As I was saying, yes, we do also like sticking to some traditions, but that's more of a… guideline, if you will Marco-Polo, rather than anything set in stone, a way to honour those before us. All that considered, I'd be flattered- no, honoured that you want to learn our language."

Marco and the rest of the table blink blankly, and look back and forth between Star and Tom. Marco then puts his hand to his face and rubs at his temples, "Y'know, at times I wasn't sure how you too were royals with the way you act, but after that whole shtick, I can see it. I think my head is swirling from all that my-kingdom-is-better-than-yours overly polite speak."

"Yeah Star, I think I might be getting sick from all that passive-aggression you just threw down. I didn't even know you could be passive anything!" Jackie exclaims, though with a smile to indicate she's joking.

Both Tom and Star's eyes get wide, and they look at each other with a blush, which ends up with them breaking out into laughter.

"Sorry guys." Star says, wiping her eyes.

"I guess old habits die hard, don't they Starship," Tom says, still chuckling, "All in all though, yeah I think it'd be cool to teach you hellish, let's do it."

The bell rings with perfect timing, causing everyone to pick up their empty trays and Tom to careful pack Cerberus back into his bag, putting it on carefully and readjusting his- Marco's hoodie.

Marco says slightly under his breath as he get's up, "You coulda just said that in the first place."

Tom of course hears this, Marco blames some sort of demonic hearing capabilities, and says, "Yeah I could of, but it wouldn't have been as fun."

Tom winks at Marco, and bumps him slightly with his hip, before taking the tray from Marco and hurrying ahead to put both his and Marco's trays back, then turns around to walk backwards.

"C'mon Marco-Polo, daylight's a wasting, and it's time to do some more learning." Tom shouts back with an over-the-top smile.

"You really like seeing me suffer through classes, don't you?"

"Well I am a demon, and as far as I can tell you don't seem to be getting actually injured from this, like would be if we were back home, so yeah I'd say it's pretty amusing." Tom concludes with a smirk, causing Marco to roll his eyes.

"Plus it's… nice. Seeing Starship so happy while being aware of my presence is really refreshing, I'm really glad we could stay friends in the end. Not to mention that all your friends, and enemies, are pretty interesting, and I think I'm going to get along with Star's girlfriend- Jackie? - more than I thought I would." Tom carefully readjusts the straps on his backpack once again, then fiddles with the sleeves of Marco's stolen hoodie, "Uh, what I'm trying to say here is. Thanks. For giving me a chance, and not being too unmanageably freaked out by the whole blood moon soul bond thing."

Marco smiles softly, and bumps his hip into Tom's, like Tom did earlier, "No problem Tom. You're actually a lot cooler than I gave you credit for. If only you would stop finding my suffering hilarious, then we could get along great." Marco ends jokingly, causing Tom to laugh.

"Ah, well, as long as you know if you're in any real danger or actually suffering there's no force in any dimension that can stop me from trying my best to save or help you, and rip whatever hurt or threatened you into shreds, except me, y'know, dying. I think this is our classroom, right… Marco-Polo?" Tom trails off to look at Marco.

Marco had went wide-eyed during Tom's tirade, and now, even though he's a bit aghast at both the thought of Tom tearing something to pieces and of Tom possibly dying, he feels a happy warmth budding in his chest for an inexplicable reason. He snaps out of it to look at Tom, who seems to be focusing on his chest too, a hand placed over his heart and his eye's blown wide in surprise, as if he could feel the warmth as well. Marco shook off the ridiculous thought- it was probably just heartburn from the cafeteria food anyways -, and looks at the door Tom had stopped at.

"Hm? Oh yeah, you're right this is it. C'mon Tom."

Tom's head snaps up to look at him, then he looks back down at his chest, before rubbing it with the hand placed against it and says, "Y-yeah. Learning, woo-hoo."

Subconsciously, Marco takes a hold of Tom's hanging purple hand, and pulls him into the class, "Well, you're the one who wanted to see me suffer, and this bond apparently means you have to suffer right along with me."

* * *

 **A/N: once again, sorry for the wait, i love you aaaaalllllllll 3333333, thanks for all the support, and as always kudos and comments make my day, and fan art makes my life~! i track fsiiaabmb on tumblr if you want me to see anything you made/anything that reminds you of my fic, and my tumblr link should hopefully be below if you ever wanna shout at me for not updating, or just talk 'bout tomco! 333 I also s2g it was supposed to be longer, i just remembered how long i've kept y'all waiting and went 'screw it' ;A; xD**


	9. Chapter 9: Hoodie Compromise

**A/N: Hey guys! Super sorry this took so long, but IB is terrible (never do IB if you can help it). I'm on Easter break now tho, so I had time to upd8! This is mostly filler, and I'm so so so so sorry ;A; You're all literally the best, thank you so much for your nice comments and your kudos and bookmarks! Means the world to me, honestly! 3**

* * *

The final bell rings, starting a stampede of children heading towards the door, eager to get home. However, to the back of the group, in no rush, are Tom, Marco, and Star.

"So it's 'sengie no fala'? And that means 'nice to meet you'?" Marco asks Tom earnestly as they walk along, carefully swerving around running people.

Tom chuckles, not needing to swerve as people easily got out of his way, and replies, "Almost. It's sengi nu faala, and it more means 'this meeting between us is appreciated, I will not attack you unless provoked', but," Tom waves his hand carelessly, "Yeah, modern day translations and all that, so 'nice to meet you' is basically what it means nowadays."

"Gah, gotta work on my pronunciation." Marco groans while they continue to move along at a snail's pace, "Yxiate jui Marco, my name is Marco, I at least got that right, yeah?"

Tom smiled, and reached a hand out to ruffle Marco's hair, "Yes, you're pronunciation is much much better, but honestly Marco-Polo, don't beat yourself up too much, alright? A lot of hellish words aren't even really meant to be said by living humans, so it's understandable that you'd say them a bit weirdly."

Marco pouts slightly, and moves Tom's hand from his hair, "Yeah, but if I don't practise this, I'm gonna end up sounding like a tourist and getting taken advantage of by Underworld shops, and I don't know - taxis! Do you guys have taxis? I'm getting off topic - let me just try my best with this, okay?"

Tom chuckles a bit, and stuffs his hands into the pockets of the hoodie, "Whatever you say Marco-Polo, whatever you say."

Star fake gags and says, "You two are so cutesy and couple-y, it's almost sickening!"

She smiles brightly at the blushes and sputterings she receives from both boys, before grabbing each of their hands and dragging them along faster, until they were finally out of the school. However, she doesn't let go of either of their hands, and instead starts skipping between them, causing all of their hands to swing.

"If you're so hyped on teaching Marco hellish, why not teach him what you said to Ferguson? I think those insults are definitely something that people need to know!" Star says brightly.

Tom laughs and says, "Because, Starship, I don't think Marco-Polo would appreciate only being able to say those particular phrases. He'd have to fight everyone, and while I'm sure he's capable, he's not you and so I doubt he'd want to. What I said really isn't for… polite company. Besides," Tom gently tugs at the hand Star is holding, causing her to let go of Marco's.

He then twirls her as they walk, causing her to laugh happily, "Last time I taught someone curse words first, they ended up insulting nearly everyone who was in high standing at the time, and nearly caused a civil war."

Star stops twirling, and turns to look at Tom, her hands on her waist, smiling and still slightly swaying because of how dizzy she got, "That was one time! And to be fair, you only taught me curse words! What did you expect?"

Marco stops walking and looks at Tom, "Yeah honestly dude, it's Star. She'll easily try and fight anyone, and you decided to only teach her insults and curses? That's just a recipe for disaster."

Tom stops in his tracks and snorts, "It only had to happen once, you don't just forget an almost civil war Starship. Besides you only wanted to learn curse words - believe me when I say Marco-Polo, I tried to teach her other words, and simple phrases. She refused to even listen to anything that wasn't a nasty insult, and hey, I'm a demon, who am I to stop chaos? And what's Star other than cutely bottled chaos?"

Marco blinks, turns his head to look at Star, and remembers how when he first met her, she lit her own rainbow on fire, before turning back to look at Tom and shrugs, "When you're right, you're right."

Star over exaggeratedly pouts, "You know, if I wasn't so okay with being called cute chaos, I'd think you guys were trying to tease me." She can't her pout for long though, and she breaks out into a smile, "You guys can make up for it though, by following me to the mall - there's this cute shop that I wanted to check out!"

Marco groans while Tom shrugs and says, "Sure."

Marco looks at Tom like he's a traitor and loudly whispers at him, "Are you mad? Have you ever been shopping with Star? We'll be there for like three whole hours!"

Tom tsks and says, "Only three hours? Starship you disappoint me. On my last trip I spent like five hours in one shop alone. You've grown weak."

Star sticks out her tongue at him and says, "S'your fault for getting all weird and unrequited-y! I haven't had a good shopping buddy who can shop for hours since! No wonder I'm not as good as I was before."

Marco looks to Tom in horror, and whispers with dread, "Five hours…?"

Tom turns to Marco with a devilish smirk, "In one shop only. And I made my way through practically every store that mall had."

Marco covers his face with his hands, and sinks down onto the sidewalk, "You're worse than her! I don't think I can survive this."

Tom pats his shoulder reassuringly and says, "Chin up, think of it as… training, or some shit, I don't know. Maybe you'll even learn to like shopping."

At Marco's disbelieving laugh, Tom continues with a smirk, "Besides, if you ever feel like dying during this trip, we can always just go to the Underworld and shop there. You get the whole 'death' experience, me and Starship get shops. Sound good?"

Marco groans and says, "You're the literal worst."

Tom smiles and pulls Marco up, "I know - demon prince, remember? Let's get a move on-" Tom was cut off by his magic mirror-necklace starting to ring. "That's odd, I wasn't expecting any…"

Tom trails off as he looks at the caller-id on his mirror, before looking up at Marco and Star to say, "One moment, I have to take this."

He then walks a bit away, and accepts the call. Some indistinguishable speaking comes from the mirror, and Tom hurriedly says, "Hold on, I don't have headphones in."

Before starting to rummage in his backpack, to retrieve some black, flamey headphones, which he plugs into the mirror. "Okay sorry, you were saying?"

Marco looks to Star in question, and she just shrugs before starting to fiddle with her wand. Marco loses focus on Tom, and instead tries to get the wand away from Star before she causes any chaos, leading to a slight skirmish which only ends when Tom comes back over to them and loudly clears his throat.

Both Marco and Star snap out of their positions with a blush, though Star still manages to stick her tongue out at Marco.

Tom smiles and shakes his head before saying, "You both are five. Okay, well Marco-Polo's at least ten, but Starship is definitely five."

Star interrupts him with an, "And three-quarters!", causing Tom to laugh and state, "Sorry, five and three-quarters. Anyways, I have to cut this mall trip short, I'm needed back in the Underworld right now. A prince's job is never done, and all that bull. I should be back in time for dinner though, so don't eat everything - Starship I'm looking at you."

Star immediately looks away and says, "No promises!"

Tom smiles, before giving a slight wave, "Later Marco-Polo, Starship." before sinking into a hell hole he made under his feet.

Marco jumps back a few steps, "He needs to stop doing that without warning! What if someone fell in?"

"You're kinda supposed to fall into them Marco, duh." Star rolls her eyes.

"No, I know that! I mean what if someone who isn't supposed to fall in falls!" Marco waves his hands to emphasis his point.

Star takes one of his flailing hands, and starts to once again drag him along. "If someone accidentally falls in, Tom can just make another one to send them back, easy peasy lemon squeezey. But, since Tom isn't here anymore, that means it's just the two of us going to the mall Marco!"

Marco fakes a sigh of relief, "Thank god. I don't hate shopping, but I don't think I could've survived a five-hour-long trip. Do you have any idea what that whole phone call was about though?"

Star shrugs and says, "Not one clue. But look Marco, the mall!"

She quickly drags Marco into the building, then up an escalator, and pushes him into a rather cutesy, pastel shop.

"Gosh, your escalators really take too long Marco!" Star says as she lets go of Marco's hand in order to skip around the store.

"Maybe that's because you tried to run up an escalator that's going down." Marco says with an eyeroll, as he follows her around the store.

Star waves him off, "Excuses, excuses."

Marco lets out a faint laugh, and for the first time looks around the cute seeming store.

"Uh, Star? Why is there a bloodshot eyeball bag? Isn't this supposed to be, I don't know, a sparkly cute pastel shop or something?" Marco goes up to the bag and pokes at it curiously.

"Oh Marco, Marco, Marco! You really know nothing about fashion, do you?" Star says as she skips towards him and the bag in question.

Marco looks down at the pants and white shirt he usually always wears - Tom still had his hoodie, the thief -, looks back up at Star, and says in a flat voice, "Whatever gave you that idea."

Star laughs and says, "This shop is a creepy-cute shop! Creepy. Cute." she emphasises her words by poking at the eyeball bag.

"It's a style that really really cute and sparkly, but at the same time gorey and creepy. Bleh!" She makes a scary face at Marco, before laughing her bubbly laugh once more.

Marco lets his eyes quickly scan the shop, then looks Star up and down, before saying, "You know...that fits you shockingly well actually."

Star smiles widely, and twirls, "I know!" Then she skips back to the dress rack she was looking through before.

Marco shakes his head fondly at her, before starting to walk through the racks himself, deciding that, since he's gonna have to spend a long time there anyways, may as well make it a game to find the creepiest thing they had.

He ends up thoroughly engrossed in his little game (deciding that the creepiest thing that he found was a seemingly cracked, eyeless porcelain doll, that had an extremely pink lolita dress on with a matching bonnet), only snapping out of it when Star calls, "Marcooooo, I think I'm done for now! Lemme just pay, and then we can go!"

Marco calls back, "Alright, I'm coming," and starts to make his way up to the cashier where Star is dumping her piles of items onto the counter, when his eyes glimpse something that he had overlooked before.

It was a long, pastel pink bunny jacket - complete with a hood that had ears and a fluffy tail at the back -, that had oversized black buttons on the front, and would've looked completely innocent, if not for the fact that it had red bloodstain designs seemingly dripping off the edges on the hoodie, as well as tears in the pastel fabric which showed skeleton patterns in some places and guts in others. One of the bunny ears flopped downwards, with a jagged cut off at the end, giving the illusion of it being bitten, and, at closer look, the jacket itself seemed to have a black turtleneck stitched on the inside which, when pulled up over someone's mouth and nose, showed a mess of bloody, sharp teeth, and the whole thing was also lined in black faux fur. Marco smirks and takes the jacket off it's hanger.

"I think I'm gonna buy something too Star."

Star gasps and looks over at him, "See Marco, shopping with me isn't all bad!"

As she says this, she leans on her wand, causing a stray bolt of magic to hit a passerby, giving him bug eyes. The man screams and runs off, and Star chuckles nervously before continuing, "Anyways, I didn't think you'd like anything in this store, but hey, who am I to judge? At least you'll be wearing more than just those red hoodies and plain white shirts!"

Star tugs at Marco's top playfully. Marco lightly slaps Star's hands away as he hands the overworked, apathetic cashier the jacket, "It's not for me! It's for Tom, so he'll give me back my hoodie."

Marco gives his money to the cashier as Star casts a spell to make all of her bags lighter so she can carry them easier.

"Awww, you're getting a gift for your boyfriend, that's so sweet! I got Jackie this blue zombie hand hair clip, and this, possibly cursed, creepy siren charm bracelet!"

"He's not my boyfriend - thank you," Marco takes his change and bag from the cashier with a smile, before he walks out of the shop, Star easily falling into step beside him. "As I was saying, we're soul-bonded, not boyfriends. I only want my hoodie back, that's it. And what do you mean by 'possibly cursed' Star?!"

Star pats Marco's cheek and runs out the mall, "Okay so it's possibly cursed, and was giving out some creepy vibes - doesn't mean it's like, definitely cursed though! And Jackie loves mermaids and sirens! If it really is cursed, then we can just break the curse, no biggie Marco."

Star waves his concerns off. "Kinda a biggie Star, it's a curse!"

Marco says as he opens the door to his house. Star runs in front of him, then turns to face him, placing her bags on the ground so that she can squish his cheeks, and places her forehead on his.

"As I said Marco, if it's something, then we'll get it when we get to it! I already bought it, might as well go along for the ride. Plus the possible curse doesn't feel like it'd be lethal, so no worries!"

She lets go of Marco and picks up her bags once more, "If it makes you feel better, I texted Jackie before I bought the charm bracelet that one of the gifts I got for her may or may not be non-lethally cursed, and she wanted to see what would happened too! So it's all cool! It's not like I'd curse my girlfriend without consent, honestly Marco!"

She then bounds up the stairs. Marco follows her into her room at a much more sedated pace, before he collapses on her bed beside Star who had already face-planted into the mattress.

Marco sighs, then brings his wrist with the mirror-watch up to his face. He turns his head to look Star, "Do you think he's okay? Should we call?"

Star turns onto her back and replies, "Nah, he's probably okay. Just some, you know," Star twirls her hand in the air, "Underworld prince mumbo jumbo."

Marco nods in acceptance, then glances back nervously at his watch, before resting his arm back down on the bed. Star immediately notices that he's still worried, and a large smile takes over her face.

"You know Marco… You used to call me on my mirror."

Marco turns his head towards Star in confusion, before his eyes get wide in understanding, "Star, no."

Unheeding of Marco's words, Star sits up, "Late night when you need my love."

"Star stop, I'm begging you." Marco groans, and covers his face with his hands.

"I know when that mirror rings! That can only mean one thing."

"Star please."

"Ever since I left my kingdom, you~"

Marco removes his hands from his face, and throws a pillow at Star, who dissolves into laughter. Her bubbly laugh is naturally contagious, and Marco soon starts laughing along with her.

As they laugh, a hell hole appears in Star's floor, and Tom comes out of it. He looks at the nearly hysterical pair on the bed, and asks, "Do I even wanna know?"

Marco forces himself to take some deep breaths, and sits up cross-legged on Star's bed, wiping a tear from his eye he replies, "Probably not."

Tom accepts the answer with a shrug, and sits on the bed in between Star and Marco. "Again, sorry Starship, we'll definitely go shopping together another day."

Star, who's still lying down, lazily reaches a hand up to pat Tom's cheek, "It's cool, it's cool. Shopping with Marco was actually fun, and I got a looooot of stuff, so in my opinion, it was a successful trip!"

"That reminds me." Marco says as he reaches for the bag at the edge of the bed.

"Oh, did you actually get something Marco-Polo? See, shopping isn't all that ba-," Marco throws the jacket at Tom's face, cutting him off.

"Oh shut up. It's for you, so you finally give me back my hoodie," Marco says, watching as Tom unfolds the jacket thrown at him and look it over with a blank look.

"It's lined with black fur, and even has that whole turtleneck thing, so you can't complain that you're cold anymore. Now, give me back my hoodie."

Still holding his blank look, Tom unzips Marco's hoodie and tosses it to him, Tom's eyes flickering to the jacket the only sign of emotion on his face.

Marco takes his hoodie, then rubs behind his neck, "Look, I just thought it'd suit you. If you don't like it, it's not a big deal, we can just go and get one you like."

Tom's eyes flickers back to Marco's, "What are you talking about?" His face breaks out into a wide grin, "I fucking love this. I just can't believe Marco-Polo actually cares about me."

Tom starts laughing, and Marco blushes while putting back on his red hoodie, "Hey don't get the wrong idea. I just wanted my hoodie back, and you're such a drama queen that I couldn't just get you any old hoodie - you would've refused them."

Tom hums and puts on the jacket, "True, true. Well, lucky for you I love this, and it seems to fit."

Tom blows the bitten bunny ear from his face, where it was hanging down, "However, I'm probably never going to take this off. Starship, could you cut some holes in this so that my horns can comfortably fit into the bunny ears, after dinner?"

Star rolls off the bed, and gives Tom a thumbs up. "Okay cool, let's go eat," Tom pulls Star off of the floor, and pulls Marco by his hood, "I'm starving."

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 **A/N: And as always, follows, favourites, fanart, and reviews, give me energy to write faster! And don't ever be afraid to bug me into writing! I still track fsiiaabmb on tumblr**


	10. Chapter 10: Why not Hell?

**A/N: Hey my lovelies! I'm super super sorry for two things: 1. This took such a goddamn long ass time to churn out, IB is hell and i had so many things due at once. 2. That even though it's out, it's so short. I'm so sorry i meant for it to be longer, but i knew i had to give y'all at least a /little/ something, especially since i'm starting my end of year exams tomorrow, which won't end until the 30th- i just thought that was way too long of a wait to put you guys through. I swear i'm going somewhere with this fic. It just may take some time.**

 **Thank you all so so much for your continued support, and all around enthusiasm towards this lil fic of mine! I especially wasn't expecting so much positive feedback on the hoodie- while i personally love the hoodie and want one for myself, i thought y'all would find it too juvenile or w/e for this fic, even though they all are like what, somewhere between 12 and 14? (if someone could remind me of their ages, that'd be dope). Idk i just thought y'all would think i was trying to be 2edgy4me or whatever, so i'm really glad that you all like it as well, and want one! I even have a certain reader (i won't name names yet) who has said they are actually going to attempt to make the hoodie, and one for me as well, which is just ! something i've never imagined in a million years.**

 **So what I'm trying to say i guess, is thank you all so so much, and sorry i cant be better at giving you all quality chapters at a good rate, cuz y'all deserve it. ;A;**

 **I also celebrate Litha aka the Midsummer Solstice today, so if any of y'all do as well, blessed Litha! *insert sparkles***

 **Okay okay, now i'll let y'all go back to your crappy tomco fic~**

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"...I'm just saying, I'm not actually a cinnamon roll!"

Is all that can be heard as Marco and Tom walk into the Diaz' house, coming home from school a few weeks after the whole hoodie debacle - for once, without the hyperactive princess who was loved by both, as she had run home earlier to work on 'a project'. Marco is still trying to convince himself that he trusts Star not to get herself into anything too bad. It's a work in progress.

"Sure Marco Polo." Tom replied blandly, long since having tuned Marco out as soon as he had started the argument way back in english class.

"If anything, you're the cinnamon roll, with your bunny aesthetic and hell-bunny hoodie! Some prince of hell."

"Mhm, okay Marco Polo."

"Alright, so you'd be more of a sin-namon roll rather than cinnamon but- wait why am I even debating this?"

"That's what I'm wondering, Marco Polo. Let's just accept your fate - your adorable, sweet fate - and move on."

By now, the two have started climbing the stairs, as they headed for Star's room - Marco out of concern for any chaos she may have brought, Tom out of hope for any chaos Star may have brought.

As the neared the top of the staircase, Marco ran in front of Tom and turned so he was looking at the underworld prince, then leaned his elbow against the wall.

"Look, you're not being very convincing - I know, it's hard to believe that I'm not a 'cinnamon roll'-"

Tom cut him off, "Yes, hard to imagine in the real world, because Marco Polo, " Tom reached up to Marco and booped his nose, "You are an actual cinnamon roll."

Marco frowned slightly, before waving Tom's hand - the same hand he had karate chopped off in the past -, out of his face. Marco paused - he had cut off that hand, and not even that long ago. It was crazy to think that that psychotic looking underworld demon prince, was now one of his closest friends. Marco supposes that since Tom did get over Star, it'd probably have just be a matter of time before they were civil at the very least, but he guesses that the bond just sped up that process. Lost in thought, Marco idly placed his hand back on the wall, before shaking his head to clear it.

"No, I'm being serious Tom. I'm actually just a misunderstood bad boy!"

As Marco says this, Star opens her door - which wouldn't be anything to think about, only except as Marco was lost in thought before, instead of placing his hand on the wall, he had actually placed it on Star's door. Which is to say, as Star pulled the door open, Marco fell flat to the floor like a bag of bricks. Star looks at him on the floor, and starts laughing immediately, while Tom snorts and steps over Marco while saying, "Yeah, 'bad boy', I'm so convinced Marco Polo."

Marco's cheeks pool with red as he hurriedly stands up again, and quickly blurts out the first thing to come to his mind in hopes of getting the attention off of him, "Oh shut up Tom! Some bonded you are, you didn't even check to make sure I was alright."

Tom sits on Star's bed without so much as glancing at Marco, instead seeming more curious to try and figure out if Star had done anything to the room, "If you were actually hurt, I would've felt it through the bond, so sit down and stop pouting Marco Polo. Or sorry, should I say," Tom looks Marco directly in his eyes with a smile that reminds Marco that Tom is an actual demon from hell, "Misunderstood bad boy."

Marco groans, feeling like he'd be getting teased for that for awhile. He marches towards the bed, lightly shoving a still laughing Star to the ground, "Some best friend you are, too busy laughing to come to my rescue."

"It's not my fault Marco, you just make it so easy." Star says from the ground, still laughing and kicking her feet into the air. Marco snorts, and catches one of Star's flailing legs in his hands, and uses it to drag her, still laughing, closer to the bed.

"So, what did you do Starship? Nothing seems out of place. Well-" Tom flicked a shirt that was on the bed onto the pile of clothes on the ground, and continued, "Any more than usual at least."

Marco lets go of Star's leg, and sits on the bed as well, while Star simply stays on the floor unbothered.

"Wouldn't you like to know~" Star says as she waves her wand in the air in a suspicious manner.

She then breaks out into a smile, and continues, "Honestly though, it's nothing to worry about really! Just looking at that curse from the bracelet I got Jackie - apparently now if she sings she can put boys under some sorta trance? Which we both agree is super cool, but she kinda thought that I should make up a counterspell incase this gets, you know," Star makes a vague, almost jazz-handsy gesture, "Outta hand in some way."

"Yes because being able to put any man under a siren spell could not possibly become a bad thing or a threat in any way, shape, or form." Tom says blandly, before falling back to lie on the bed.

"That's exactly what I said!" Says Star victoriously from the floor, while Marco just falls back onto the bed with a groan.

He ends up lying closely beside Tom, but doesn't find it bothering him, so he just says, "Tom was being sarcastic Star. You were not."

"Whaaaaat, no he wasn't." Star says petulantly.

Tom closes all three of his eyes and replies, "Marco Polo is correct. Starship is not."

Star sits up from the floor, and chucks two pillows that were on the ground at both Marco and Tom, "You guys are the worst, why are you bonded? Now you can both just pick on me- this is why Ponyhead always told me not to let my exes date my besties! They gang up against you!"

Both boys blush at the accusation, but while Marco splutters and tries to find words, Tom calmly takes the pillows that were thrown at them, and throws them right back at Star, not looking at her or moving from his position, but still nailing her in the face and causing her to fall flat onto the ground once more.

"Firstly Starship, you know better than most that me and Marco, while bonded, are not dating. Secondly, rude."

Star knocks the pillow from her face, and says with a wide grin, "Well, they are throw pillows."

Tom and Marco make brief eye contact, before removing the pillows their heads were lying on, and simultaneously throwing them at Star. Star breaks out laughing, "Now you're just hitting a princess while she's down! Mutiny! Betrayal! This means war!"

Both boys decide to ignore the flailing princess for the time being, less an all out pillow war break out.

Marco turns his head to face Tom who's face is turned upward with all three eyes still closed, and ends up staring. He's never really had a chance to see Tom this relaxed before- last time Marco caught him sleeping, it was with the whole 'stalker-because-of-bond' thing and Marco had quickly awoken Tom with his surprise of seeing him in the room, so it's not like Marco had a chance to take him in.

'Once you get over the purple skin, third eye, and horns,' Marco muses to himself, 'Tom's a pretty regular, arguably attractive guy. He's at least aesthetically pleasing, I'll give him that. No wonder so many people at school already have a crush on him.'

Marco's eyes continue to wander along Tom's face, before he notices that Tom's right eye was open and looking at him with a raised brow. "Problem Marco Polo? Or just admiring my natural beauty? It's alright if you see something you like, I won't tell Starship."

Star calls up from the ground, "Gaaaaaaaaaay!" And then processes the last sentence and says, "Wait a second- I'm right here, you know!"

Marco rolls his eyes at both of his other dimensional friends, surprisingly enough not as embarrassed to be caught staring as he thought he would've been, chalking it up to the bond, and says, "I just forgot to tell you, my parents are asking about yours. I think they may want to meet them? Or at least talk to them and make sure they're okay with this whole school situation we got going on."

Tom quickly looks away and closes his eyes once more, but Marco notices a slight tenseness, "If they were unhappy with the situation, trust me. We'd know. Could you just, I don't know, tell Mr and Mrs Diaz that while their sentiments are appreciated, it is currently impossible and unlikely that my parents will be able to meet with them."

Tom seems to relax a bit, and glances back over at Marco, "I'm sorry if that puts you in a tough spot Marco Polo."

Marco waves him off, "Nah, it's fine, my parents can get a little nosey at times. I think they'll understand."

Marco then props himself up on his elbow to stare down at Tom, "What I don't get, though, is why the hell you don't talk to me more in hellish when I'm trying to learn it?"

Star says from the ground, "Oooooh, studious Marco PhD is out, Tom's in troooouble."

Tom stammers, "I, uh, didn't want to like, um, overwhelm you with the language? You're already learning at an impressive rate for someone who is neither born into the language or submerged in the language, Marco Polo, it's totally fine, you can calm down."

Marco fixes Tom with a look, "Don't tell me to calm down dude, if I want to learn hellish I will and no force in any of the dimensions can stop me. You did give me an idea though… This Saturday you're going back to the Underworld, yeah?"

Tom looks at Marco wearily, before replying, "...Yes?"

Marco smiles brightly, "Good, because you're going to take me with you."

Tom sits straight up on the bed and says, "What?" at the same time Star cheers and says, "Oooh, me too I haven't been back there since the Blood Moon Ball! Can I bring Jackie?"

Marco replies, "Of course."

Before Tom cuts them both off, "I repeat, what? I haven't agreed to this, to any of this, you really don't need to go to the Underworld to learn hellish Marco Polo."  
Marco replies, "Okay yeah, I don't need to, but one of the fastest ways to learn a language is to be submerged in that language. Not to mention, I've seen your bookshelf, there's gotta be tons of resources in there that I can use to help me learn."

Star pipes up, "Plus Jackie has never been to any other dimension, and it's my turn to plan a date!"

"So you take your girlfriend to the Underworld for a date, why am I not surprised Starship." Tom pinches the bridge of his nose with a sigh, scooting over to the edge of the bed so his feet once more touched the ground, before shaking his head, "I don't know guys."

Star sits up, and her and Marco make eye contact, before they both simultaneously whine, "Pleeeeease Tom."

Star breaks off the whine to crawl over to where Tom is sitting and take his face in her hands, squishing and rubbing his cheeks while saying, "C'mooooon."

Tom cracks a smile, and Marco moves over and places a hand on his shoulder causing Tom to turn his head in Star's grasp and look at him, "It could be fun? And it'd really help me out a lot."

Tom heaves a great sigh, and gently removes Star's hands from his face, before dramatically rolling all three eyes and saying, "Fine."

Star and Marco high-five and give a small victory cry, and Tom butts in once more, "But I am not liable if we run into any trouble."

Star waves him off, "We'll be fiiiiiiine."

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 **A/N: favourites and follows show that you care, and reviews give me motivation! My tumblr is gosshiku-hime-wa-yami-san for anyone who's curious~ Also, i'm never mad at fanart *nudge nudge wink wonk cough cough hack***

 **I track the tag fsiiaabmb on tumblr~**


	11. Chap 11: Highway? Nah, Elevator to Hell

**A/N: ...Hey y'all... *gets shot***

 **okay okay, 1stly i am sO SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER AND A DAY, IB MIXED WITH DEPRESSION, IS NOT A GOOD MOTIVATING COCKTAIL ;A;**

 **it's Christmas break so i /hope/ to get on some sorta update spree, but no promises as i'm on vacation in Canada with close family that i haven't seen in a bit rn, but i will try! ^O^**

 **I actually wrote this on the 4 hour flight, it knocked off around an hour/hour n 45 mins/maaaybe 2**

 **2ndly, Y'ALL ARE LEGIT THE BEST, ALL THE NICE COMMENTS AND KUDOS AND BOOKMARKS AND JUST NOT GIVING UP ON ME I COULDNT ASK FOR BETTER READERS ^U^ I'm sorry for being so shitty**

 **3rdly: since its been awhile and i cant remember, if any of y'all made like fanart or something that i haven't added to these notes in the beginning to show off yet, please just remind me and i'll add them! ^u^**

 **and on that ^^^ note, here's some fanart a wonderful reader drew of Tom in his lovely hoodie! (minus the spaces and ~'s ofc):** gosshiku-hime-wa-yami-san . tumblr . c~o~m /post / 150843515832 / gosshiku-hime-wa-yami-san

 **ITS SO CUTE AND I SCREM**

 **but srsly now, you guys are the best and thanks for stickin' with me ^u^**

* * *

The week seems to pass by mostly uneventfully - Star was still trying to create something to undo Jackie's bracelet's effects, Tom still becoming acclimated to Earth, and Marco juggling learning hellish, school, and various tidbits about the Underworld that he felt he should learn since he's gonna eventually spend more and more time down there as he got accustomed to it, all the while keeping his two inter-dimensional friends out of too much trouble.

As Saturday quickly comes, the trio sits in Star's room, waiting for Jackie to come over in order to go on their trip to the Underworld. Star impatiently jumps in place by the door, eagerly waiting for Jackie to come, while Marco sits on the bed with a backpack, and Tom paces back and forth, causing a little burn mark to appear on the carpet by Star's bed.

"Marco-Polo, you really don't have to do this you know. The Underworld is my home, and Star isn't human, so I've never seen a full human walking around down there - honestly who knows what could happen."

Star snorts from the door and says while peeking out to see if Jackie was there yet, "It seems like the safe kid title is rubbing off on you Tom."

Tom flicks a little spark in Star direction, calling out, "Is not," as Star shrieks and quickly pats the small flame on her dress that the spark had caused.

Marco ignores them both and continues checking of a list that he had made. "It'll be fine Tom, it's not like I'm planning to leave the palace - castle? Mansion? Uh, penthouse? - without you. Now that would be dangerous."

Marco nods to himself, ticking off the last thing on his list before throwing both the paper and his pencil into his backpack, and zipping it up.

Tom rolls all three eyes in resignation, "With both of you ganging up against me, I don't even know why I try."

Star laughs and opens her mouth, most likely to start teasing Tom, when she was cut off by Mrs. Diaz calling up, "Kids, Jackie's here for your trip!"

Star squeals happily, and quickly runs downstairs to greet her girlfriend.

"Well, she's excited even if you aren't." Marco says, as his eyes followed Star out the door.

Tom rubs a hand through his hair, "It's not that I'm not excited. I'm just. Worried as well about the two fleshy humans that will be in my domain of hell, fire, and well, hellfire."

As he says this, flames around his feet flare up with his worry.

Marco gets up from the bed, and carefully touches Tom's arm, causing the demon boy to look at him, "Hey, how about we leave the worrying to me - one of said fleshy humans? With Star's magic, my karate skills, Jackie's siren thing, and you with your whole 'Prince of the Underworld" schtick, I'm sure we'll be fine."

Tom looks at Marco, his eyes flickering between Marco's face and the floor, before he takes a breath and the flames retreat, "Yeah, you're the better worrier out of the two of us, honestly. I swear you get worked up about almost everything Star and I do."

Tom cracks a small smirk, and Marco hits his arm lightly, "That's because everything you and Star do is cause for worry. How did you guys even date without setting everything on some sort of rainbow-fire?"

At this moment Star walks back in, dragging a smiling Jackie behind her, "Oh we did Marco! There are at least five dimensions where neither me nor Tom are allowed back, even with our royal statuses. You'd think they'd be more thankful - me and Tom really livened up those places!"

Star pouts, feeling put-out. Jackie laughs and pats Star's pouting cheeks, "Well I'm sure that the place looked way better after you guys were done wreaking your havoc."

Star looks at Jackie with wide eyes, her cheek-hearts beating, and whispers seriously, "This is why I love you."

Before giving Jackie a quick kiss, causing Jackie to laugh.

Tom stuck his tongue out, "Blech, you too are so cute you're gonna make my teeth rot out of my head."

Star stuck her tongue out in retaliation, before jumping and holding on to Jackie like a koala, and rubbing their cheeks together.

"Don't be jealous of my lovings Tom." Star says in her new position, while Jackie looked completely unruffled by her behaviour.

Tom claps his hands together once and says, "Alright, since we're all here let's get this demonic show on the road before I regret my decisions or Starship and Jackielantern over there make me invest in dentures."

"Jackielantern?" Both Marco and Jackie question, while Star is content to fiddle with her girlfriend's hair.

Tom blushes, steam billowing off his cheeks, "Look, it was short notice, and there's not a lot of things the name Jackie can be put in to."

When all he receives is a raised eyebrow from Marco, Tom rushes to continue, "I mean what else could it be? Jackie-the-box? Jackielope? Jackie-of-all-trades? It's a hard name! You try to come up with something on the fly."

Jackie speaks up, "Nah nah, it's cool. Jackielantern - I kinda like it. It makes me sound like some sort of Halloween-based superhero, y'know? Thanks Tom."

She gives him a thumbs up and a sideways smile, before quickly readjusting Star who was about to fall off of her position of dangling from Jackie.

"Okay enough with the yibber-yabber, let's go go go!" Star says, no longer fiddling with Jackie's hair, and instead waving her hands impatiently at Tom, one of them holding her dimensional scissors.

Tom chuckles and bats away Star's hands and the scissors, "Alright alright, hold on Starship, no need for your fancy scissors." He snaps him fingers, and a pillar of flame appears, "Our hell-hole awaits."

Star slides off Jackie with a shout of, "Hell yeah!" and Jackie chimes in, "Dude that is so awesome."

Marco, on the other hand, screams and backs away quickly from the fire, his eyes blown wide, "Oh hell no Tom, I am not going anywhere near that! Do you know how much of a fire hazard just that thing's existence is? Not to mention I'm a fleshy human, remember? We tend to burn easily."

Tom chuckles, and walks over to Marco, putting a comforting arm around his shoulder, "Marco-Polo I'm not planning on barbequing you. These flames are totally safe for transport, they're actually more chilled than hot, so no one will burn. Jackielantern has more faith in me than you do right now dude."

Marco inches himself as far away from the flames as he can, causing him to press closer to Tom, not that Marco notices, "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I don't trust flames, and haven't completely thrown out the laws of Earth which state that touch plus fire equals bad. It's alright though, I still have this thing."

Marco reaches into his hoodie pocket, and takes out the small hell-bell, before turning to look slightly up at Tom, "I can just meet you guys there alright?"

Tom third eye looks Marco straight in his eyes, while his other two eyes flickers between Marco's face and the hell-bell in his hands. Tom then closes all of his eyes, and sighs before saying, "Yeah, that works. I'm letting you off this time because I feel some of your fear in the undercurrent of the bond, but I'm not letting you off fully! One of these days, I'm gonna surprise pull you into one of these hellholes, just so you can see there is literally nothing dangerous about them. But back on subject- don't take too long to catch up with us Marco-Polo alright? No detours."

He then rests his forehead against Marco's, all eyes closed. Marco unflinching, huffs a laugh and says, "Where would I even go to? I'm literally gonna be just behind you guys - I thought we agreed that worrying doesn't suit you." "I blame you, the bond is making your worrying become a habit of mine, it seems."

Star then pipes up, "Okay well if you two are finished being gay as hell-," The two boys seem to realise what they were doing, and jump back from each other, "-then let's go! I haven't been back to the Underworld since the Bloodmoon, and I have things I wanna show Jackie!"

Tom chuckles at Star's enthusiasm, and shakes his head slightly before giving Marco a short wave and turning away to jump into the hellhole. Star quickly launches herself in after him with a quick, "Bye Marco!"

Jackie smiles at her girlfriend's antics before going over to Marco to give him a light punch on his arm. "Don't take too long, aight Diaz?" , she remarks before stepping into the hole as well.

Marco rubs his hand before shaking his head at the closing hole, muttering under his breath, "Crazy people, no practical worry of being burnt alive."

He then shakes the bell he still had in his hand, and walks over to the window where he could hear the struggling gargoyle flying towards. "Hey there Jeff." Marco greets the gargoyle as he steps into the elevator, all of the gargoyles' names being one of the various tidbits of the Underworld he demanded to learn from Tom so that he didn't feel awkward in the case of ever having to call them for quick transport - his mother taught him manners after all.

The gargoyle gives a slight, surprised smile at hearing his name, before replying, "Nice to have you aboard Master Tom's Marco. You're lighter to carry than Master Tom's Star. It's much appreciated."

Marco crossed his arms with a slight huff, "Well I'm sorry we can't all eat like pigs then work it off monster hunting. I'm a simple human with simple tastes. And I'm not light, I'm just…petite."

Jeff snorted, "Yeah. Simple. Like getting soul bonded to fire demons who are also the princes of the Underworld. Totally simplistic."

Marco blushed, and lightly hit the top of the elevator, "Not you too Jeff! I can't rely on anyone nowadays."

Jeff said nothing, but smirked out of sight of Marco, "Anyways, where to Master Tom's Marco? Master Tom's rooms?"

Marco sits back and gets comfortable, "Yup, thanks Jeff."

As they literally descended into hell, Marco starts to fiddle with his phone, instinctively being able to tell when they crossed the threshold from mortal dimension to the underworld by the sudden increase in dropping speed, and the heat waves that slams into him and they go lower and lower. Marco fans himself as he starts to sweat, and reminds himself, 'Not much longer.'

And of course, as he thinks this, a blast of energy hits the elevator directly, causing Jeff to careen to the side and Marco to fall sideways.

"What was that?" Marco shouts as he tries to right himself, "Jeff, are you alright?"

Jeff's pained reply comes, "Mostly, but my wing seems to be badly bruised. I'm sorry Master Tom's Marco, we're gonna have to do an emergency landing, and call Master Tom for a new gargoyle for you. I am very sorry for the inconvenience."

Marco says kindly, "Hey, we're both still alive and not in immediate danger - this is already less of an inconvenience than one of Star's missions. It's no problem, I'm glad you aren't hurt too bad."

"Thank you Master Tom's Marco-"

Marco cut him off, "You can just call me Marco, you know."

"Alright then Master Marco, as I was saying, brace for impact."

Marco quickly braces against the elevator's walls right, not a moment too soon, as they then painfully hit the ground. The elevator rolls a bit, but holds together thankfully. When the rolling has stopped, Marco uncovers his head, and checks himself over, noting that although he wasn't bruised or had broken bones, his mirror watch broke, causing glass to spread on the floor of the elevator.

"Aw man, seriously? I actually liked this thing." Marco mutters unhappily to himself as he gingerly tiptoes around the glass, and pokes his head out of the elevator door, "You okay Jeff?"

"A bit tangled Master Marco, but otherwise fine." Marco's eyes quickly finds Jeff, who is indeed tangled in the ropes that connected him to the elevator, the wood around his neck causing him to be stuck in an awkward and uncomfortable position. Marco quickly scrambles out of the elevator towards Jeff.

"We gotta get you outta there! Think Diaz think, uh magic? No that's Star's thing. Scissors? Star. Pocket knife!" Marco shouts triumphantly, and begins to pat down his hoodie pockets, before stopping with a sigh, "Stolen by Star earlier this week. Okay, don't worry Jeff, I'll get you out, I just need, like a really sharp rock or something."

Marco begins to pace around as he talks, frantically looking for a stone.

"Uh, Master Marco, while your concern is touching, feel free to use my talons. I would've, but my position makes it hard for me to see my hands, and a quick slice could possibly take off my arm instead of the rope, so please do be careful."

Marco stops his search, and makes his way back to Jeff with an, "Ah, right. Talons. How could I forget."

He then gingerly picks up Jeff's hand, and carefully manoeuvres it to reach the ropes. As he starts cutting, Marco continues to nervously ramble, trying to calm his raising panic, "Where the heck did that hit even come from though? That felt like some serious magic."

"Uh, Master Marco, you may want to-"

"And I know serious magic, being around Star so much. Not how I thought my life would go, but beats being the safe kid, you know?"

"Master Marco, I think you should turn-"

"And don't get me wrong, I love Star as a friend, she's the closest one I've got. I just didn't expect it to lead to, well, soul bonds and freeing gargoyles, but still-"

"MASTER MARCO, MOVE!"

Jeff, still with one arm tangled, manages to push both Marco and himself out of the way of an incoming blast of violent green magic. Marco quickly rights himself, and looks towards the source of the blast, which was no other than a very raggedy looking Ludo, riding on the back of a giant eagle with a wand stretched out in front of him.

"Of course," Marco rolls his eyes, "Look Ludo I don't have time for you right now, I've got to help Jeff."

Marco says, pointing his thumb at the still entangled gargoyle.

"Marco Diaz, let's make this quick then shall we? Tell Princess Butterfly to come out of wherever she's hiding, and give me her wand, and then I'll leave you with your... gargoyle problem."

Marco snorts as he turns his back on Ludo to continue cutting Jeff free, "No dice dude, Star isn't even with me, she took the hellhole. Long gone, totally comfortable somewhere in the Underworld's castle - or uh, mansion? Extremely furnished penthouse?"

Marco debates once more with himself the correct term as he finally lets loose Jeff.

"Master Marco, we must leave immediately, the little creature is a magic wielder!"

Ludo protests at being called 'little creature', as Marco rolls his eyes and scoffs, waving a hand as if to shoo away the concern, "It's okay big dude, it's just Ludo. He's after Star not me, which means he's as harmless as a fly."

Ludo speaks up enraged, "I am certainly not harmless, Marco Diaz! Actually... since Star isn't here, how about I take you hostage instead? From what I heard about Toffee's siege, that worked perfectly in getting Star to go to him."

Marco's eyes widens as Ludo points his wand at him, "Well fuck me then."

Marco jumps out of the way of Ludo's blast, and shouts, "Jeff, go get Tom and tell him what happened!"

Jeff calls back, also dodging some wayward blasts, "Master Marco, I cannot just leave you!"

Marco rolls out go the way of a blast and yells, "Jeff, your wing can't fly us both right now! I'll be fine for a little bit, I've got practise in Ludo dodging."

To further emphasis his point, Marco jumps right in time to miss being knocked out by Ludo. Jeff looks between Ludo and Marco, before seeming to steel himself, "Master Marco, please do not die."

He then quickly flies away to notify Tom, leaving Marco with Ludo.

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 **A/N: And as always, faves & follows show you care, and reviews give me motivation! My tumblr is gosshiku-hime-wa-yami-san . tumblr . c~o~m for anyone who's curious ^u^ Also, i'm never mad at fanart *nudge nudge wink wonk cough cough hack***

 **I track the tag fsiiaabmb on tumblr~**


	12. Chapter 12: Ludo Done Fucked Up

**A/N: ,,,,,so,,,,,,betcha thought you'd seen the last of me? xD**

 **on a serious note: I APOLOGISE FOR BEING SO SHIT WITH UPLOADING! Writing is hard yo. Writing while you're in not just school, but the ib program and nearing both exam time and graduation is harder yo. Writing with all that, plus mental illness may just be hardest tbh. But still, all of y'all have been so very lovely, and still wanna stick with this thing - for reasons i dont even know but hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth huh? ^u^ - and for that, as always, thank y'all from the bottom of my lil sleepy heart. 333 you guys are the actual best!**

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To say Tom was pissed would be an understatement.

It had started out as such a good day too - he and the girls arrived almost immediately in the Underworld, and knowing the time taken for Marco to get there would be deemed too long for Star, who wanted to show her girlfriend everything, he let Star drag Jackie away promising to call Star's mirror and catch up with them when Marco arrived.

So Tom waited. And waited and waited, for longer than he thought he should be, but thought that he was just making the wait seem longer than it actually was. Right as he started actively debating whether to go out and see what was taking Marco so long or not, he heard the unmistakable sound of a gargoyle's flapping wings, and stepped up to his window with a little smile - he was over-thinking things, probably just Marco's habits rubbing off on him.

Of course that smile immediately dropped when he saw the condition Jeff was in, became a worried brow when he noticed Marco wasn't with him, and turned into a ferociously mad scowl when he heard what had happened - immediately asking Jeff for the location so he could transport.

So yeah, Tom was kinda royally pissed off.

Tom ends up opening a hellhole right at the moment Marco trips while dodging a blast from Ludo, who was monologuing with an unstable air about him. Ludo laughs at Marco sprawled on the ground and points his 'wand' at the boy.

"I told you you could not dodge me forever Diaz! I'd rather not kill you as yet, but since you won't just cooperate with me I think a magically enhanced coma will make you a much easier to deal with damsel in distress, don't you? Or-"

Ludo cuts himself off, and leans his head towards his wand, appearing to be listening to it. "Good idea! A mind control spell - Star's precious sidekick to be the one to betray her and bring her wand to me! My own little invisible prison with a puppet for a prisoner, ooh this will be fun!"

Ludo turns his insane grin down at Marco, "Any words before you lose the ability to think for yourself? Take your time, I've been waiting to hear you - or even Star really, I'm not picky - grovel at my feet."

However as Ludo was conversing with his wand, Marco caught sight of Tom appearing out of a hellhole and stomping his way over unsubtly. Marco's mouth twitches into a slight smile and says to Ludo, "Alright, two things. 1. I never thought I'd say this, but thank god for soul bonds."

Ludo looks at Marco in confusion and says patronisingly, "Soul bonds? What did you and Star get bonded? That's just adorable - imagine her face when I take away not only her friend but her bonded too! Ha! Oh happy day!"

"I never said I was bonded to Star, now did I?"

Ludo scoffs, "Stop bluffing boy, the cat's already out of the bag. If not Star, who could you have possibly bonded with?"

Marco allows the smile to take over his face, "And that brings me to my second thing." Marco then gestures his chin towards Tom who is all but behind Ludo, "Run."

Ludo turns his head in confusion, and jumps back into his eagle, startled.

"Oh, Your Majesty, you snuck up on me, heh. I'm sorry if I disturbed you, I'm just taking care of some business, you know how it is. I'll just pack him up to go - you know Diaz? That kid your Star always hangs around - as if he has the right to date her when she's clearly yours, am I right?" As he's speaking Ludo and his eagle are slowly backing away from the flaming prince, "So I'll just stuff him in a bag and get him out of your way - no need to thank me. How's the King and Queen?"

Marco, with a shit-eating grin, props himself of the floor with an elbow and says, "Tom meet Ludo -"

Ludo cuts him off, "Of course Prince Tom knows me! Most of my monster lackeys are supplied from the Underworld you dolt! My own father used to do jobs for their royal family at times!"

Marco just allowed his smile to get wider, "And Ludo meet Tom - prince of the Underworld, and my soul bonded."

All the colour drained from Ludo's face, and his mouth fell open while his eyes flickered between Marco and Tom blatantly hoping this was a joke. Marco then sits up fully, rests his back on a nearby rock, folds his arms behind his head, smile wider than ever and says, "Now would be the time to start running by the way."

Tom, who had been focused on looking over Marco for any visible bumps or bruises while Marco had his fun verbally scaring Ludo, allows a small smile to peak out at this, "If you're quite done Marco-Polo? I'd hate to cut your gloating speech short."

Ludo attempts to climb onto his eagle's back as Marco feigns boredom and casually waves his hand at Tom in non-verbal acquittance, "No no, I'm done. Go on, I know you want to."

Tom then smiled full teeth and turned slowly to Ludo - who gets so startled that he falls off his escape eagle he was trying to climb on to.

"Uh, I didn't know?"

Ludo tries pointing his wand shakily at Tom, before Tom bursts into flames and screams at the top of his lungs, "LUDO!"

As Tom takes after a squealing Ludo, Marco carefully stands up and hums to himself, checking and patting himself down for any injuries. After assessing the damage is nothing more serious than a few scrapes and bruises, Marco takes off his pretty dirty hoodie and ties it around his waist - overheating from both the dodging and the Underworld's climate - stepping out of the way of both a screaming, on fire Ludo who was tossed passed him and an angrily smiling Tom who gives chase to the villain he just threw.

Marco then stretches his sore joints out, and his muscles protesting groans almost block out Ludo's screaming, pleading, and apologising, as well as Tom maniacal laughter. Marco then carefully digs steps back into the crashed hellevator, and picks up his backpack, digging through it as he steps out of the no longer usable elevator right as Ludo gets thrown right through the thing, a fireball closely following him as the elevator shatters completely from the force of the throw.

Marco finds his pencil and notepad from where he had tossed them in earlier, and sits on a rock as he reassesses his list - striking off things he will no longer be able to do because of how much time Ludo took up, and adding new things to the bottom of the list such as to buy Jeff a nice fruit basket - or just something inexpensive that gargoyles like - to apologise for all the trouble.

Marco then looks up, to see how the fight - or rather Tom beating up Ludo - is going, and notices Ludo's eagle staring at him, not even attempting to help her master.

Marco nods at the eagle, "Smart bird." Before checking his mirror-watch to see exactly how much time Ludo had taken up out of his day so he could accurately correct his list, and seeing that he had around three missed calls from Star.

Marco hisses through his teeth, 'Three calls from Star back to back is never a good sign. She probably getting impatient, I just hope Jackie stops her from setting anything on fire or letting loose any animals. Who am I kidding, Jackie would probably cheer her on.'

With that thought Marco calls out to Tom, "Tom!"

Tom, who has Ludo under one arm and is beating Ludo's face in with a flaming fist stops momentarily to look up at Marco.

"Star's called three times, we have to go before she wrecks your kingdom."

Tom seems to debate this in his head, before he shrugs and drops Ludo abruptly onto the ground.

"Fair enough, you were supposed to be back by now and we should all be hanging out. She's probably worried, and a worried Starship is a chaotic Starship."

Tom casually steps over the bruised and bleeding Ludo to walk towards Marco as the human boy in question scoffs a laugh. "Any Star is a chaotic Star, Tom."

"Also very true Marco-Polo."

Tom smiles at Marco, and puts an arm around his shoulders as he snaps open a hellhole. Before they step in, Tom calls out over his shoulder, "Oh and Ludo? Touch Marco Diaz again and I will kill you - and that's a promise. Pass that on to your other little wannabe villain friends for me will you?"

As they step into the hellhole - which Marco is not at all happy about but decided to swallow his complaints this one time - Marco elbows Tom and says fake-angrily, "Why only me? Why not 'touch Marco Diaz or Star Butterfly again, and I'll slaughter you?"

Tom barks out a laugh, "Slaughter, nice, I'm gonna have to use that one more. Oh and Starship can take care of herself against creeps like Ludo - the way he was wielding that 'wand' of his has got nothing on Starship. I mean if she wants help, she knows I always got her back, but she doesn't usually need any."

Marco gets actually offended and whirls to face Tom, pointing a finger in his face, "Hey, I can handle myself too you know! I know karate, I'm not a damsel in distress! Ludo having magic just… surprised me is all."

Tom swats the finger from his face as they arrive in his room and says, "Trust me, I know you can handle yourself. You literally chopped off my hand when we first met."

Marco sheepishly looks away with a nervous laugh at that as Tom continues, "However, Starship's a princess, she's used to people trying to kill her, steal from her, and kidnap her - she's literally been taught ways to avoid and get out of this kind of shit. Not that she much tries to avoid it, seeing as she was also raised by her father to be a warrior and all - but that's just Starship. You on the other hand were kind of just suddenly thrown into all this, from what Starship says, and while yes, I will admit that you are frankly an utter badass for surviving and winning against literal monsters - even more badass for staying friends with Starship honestly - you're still kind of,"

Tom reaches out and lightly squeezes the finger that had been in face prior, "A squishy human. Not to mention, me being prince of a realm and you being my soul bonded allows me to fully put you directly under my protection - and sure you can fight for yourself, but I'd rather you not even get into those situations in the first place if I can help it. It doesn't seem like you have Starship's love for life threatening danger and non-ending fights either, if the way you totally ignored Ludo and let me beat him up while you got your shit together is any clue. If it was Starship that got attacked, she woulda been pounding on his face with me, that's for damn sure."

Marco shrugs and scrunches his nose, "Yeah probably - but that's Star."

Marco then turns around and walks to a nearby coffee table to drop his bag on, while continuing, "I suppose you're right - karate is all about self-defense, not endless fighting, if the enemy attacked me first I fight, but if they can't fight anymore I stop - Ludo couldn't fight me anymore, it didn't make sense to try to fight him more. And I didn't want to ruin all your fun. Good job calming down enough to let me do my whole 'you fucked up' introductions before you beat him up, by the way."

Tom shrugs, "What can I say, Brian's a miracle worker."

Marco chuckles, then turns back to Tom, "Remind me to send him a fruit basket. But just so we're on the same page, I always appreciate the help, but you do realise I can fight my own battles right? Just because I may not necessarily want to at times doesn't make me some wilting damsel forever in distress."

Tom smiles and steps forward towards Marco, all three eyes fondly rolling in unison, "Yes Marco-Polo, I get it. Besides, you? Wilting? You have a lot more fire in you than a lot of things I've seen, and I grew up in hell."

Marco fakes bashfulness and waves a hand at Tom, "Charmer."

Both he and Tom burst into laughter - the kind of laughter that's fueled from adrenaline left over from fights or near death situations.

As they pull themselves together, Marco wipes a tear from his eye and jabs a thumb at Tom's door, "Let's go see if Star and Jackie have burned the entire place down as yet."

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 **A/N: as always, reviews & faves & follows keep me motivated! I'm on tumblr, so u can find me there, and if you ever want to show me something related to this fic (like fanart or a fan mix or something? anything rlly), you can either submit it to me or just post it with the tag #fsiiaabmb or #fsii (but maybe also me just in case! ^o^)**


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